Pat Cox
Ceist:48 Mr. Cox asked the Minister for Health the discussions, if any, he had at the meeting of EC Ministers in Brussels on Thursday, 17 May 1993; if so, the outcome of these discussions; and the relevance they had to Ireland.
Written Answers. - EC Health Ministers' Meeting.
The Ministers for Health held a wide ranging discussion at Council on 27 May. The topics on the agenda were:
—a draft resolution on future action in the field of public health;
—a Commission report on the evaluation of the effectiveness of Community action undertaken in the context of the "Europe Against Cancer" Programme;
—The Reduction in smoking in the Community by means of a range of measures including the proposal for a Council Directive on advertising for tobacco products; the approximation at a high level of excise duty on cigarettes and other forms of manufactured tobacco products and the banning of smoking in places open to the public;
—Council also considered initiatives with regard to the price of innovative medicines;
—Registers of personal data used in medical research;
—An assessment by the Commission of European Drugs Week;
—A Commission communication on adequate supplies of blood products.
—and a German concern regarding Association agreements between the EC and Poland/Romania/ Bulgaria/Hungary/Czech Republic/ Slovakia and their impact on freedom of establishment for the medical professions.
In the course of the discussion I stressed the importance of building on the new health provisions contained in the Maastricht Treaty in order to create a comprehensive EC public health action programme and welcomed, on behalf of Ireland, the proposal to draw up an overall strategy for future work in the health area which would be flexible and capable of change as need arises. The Council agreed a Resolution in this regard.
I also indicated Ireland's support for the "Europe against Cancer" programme and its innovative approach to cancer prevention, I particularly welcomed the decision to allocate an additional £4 million for the continuation of the current programme.
With regard to the discussions on tobacco advertising, I indicated Ireland's concern at the delay in agreeing a complete Community-wide ban. I confirmed that Ireland, along with a majority of member states, fully supports the Commission's proposal to ban tobacco advertising and I pointed to the strong body of evidence confirming that advertising increases the consumption of tobacco products, particularly among the young, thereby contributing to serious health problems. Tobacco advertising is already highly restricted in Ireland, but the wide circulation in Ireland of publications from other European countries makes it impractical for us to impose an outright ban on tobacco advertising in magazines and newspapers. This makes it important from our point of view that an EC ban be enforced as soon as possible.