Declaration on tackling multiple sclerosis in Europe

The European Parliament adopted a declaration signed by 408 Members on tackling multiple schlerosis in Europe.

It recalls that approximately 600 000 Europeans suffer from multiple schlerosis (MS) which is the most common neurodegenerative disorder and is a major cause of non-traumatic disability in young adults. Most people with MS are diagnosed in the prime of their working lives, and almost half leave the workforce within three years of diagnosis.

Given that in Europe tremendous discrepancies in access to disease-modifying treatments and quality of care exist, Parliament calls on the Commission and the Council to:

• encourage, within the framework of Horizon 2020, closer scientific collaboration and comparative research on MS;
• promote, in their Reflection Process on Chronic Disease, equal access to treatment and flexible employment policies for people with chronic neurological disorders such as MS.

It also calls on the Member States to enhance equal access to quality care, for example, by using certified educational training tools (such as ‘MS Nurse Professional’) to develop, standardise and benchmark specialist nursing staff training, as well as to support the European Register for MS by encouraging patient data collection at national level.