Public health: prevention of AIDS and other communicable diseases, Community action programme 1996-2000

In its amended proposal, the Commission took over 33 of the 61 amendments tabled by Parliament at first reading: - with regard to the budget, the Commission recommended that the financial envelope for the programme be set at ECU 49.6 million and that the appropriations be authorised within the limits of the financial perspective; - with regard to coherence and complementarity, the Commission agreed with the EP that the programme should be implemented in coordination with the Community's research programmes (biomedicine and health programme as well as other initiatives with third countries); - the programme should be open to the associated CEECs and to Cyprus and Malta in accordance with the financial arrangements to be agreed; - the Commission should submit a report on the programme's progress to the EP, the Council, the ESC and the Committee of the Regions. In the annexes relating to the actions to be implemented, the Commission included the following actions proposed by the EP: . actions to improve the quality of epidemiological monitoring systems in the Member States and to develop monitoring networks, . the creation of a Community network of public health epidemiologists with a view to defining common monitoring methods in the case of epidemic outbreaks, . the collection, analysis and distribution of information concerning preventive measures and the effectiveness of the measures aimed at target groups, . the development of educational and training material suited to every stage of children's development to increase awareness of the modes of transmission of STDs and AIDS, . studies on high-risk groups, including those undergoing blood transfusions, drug users or those in high-risk situations (prisons, the military, mobile populations, border regions), . exchanges of information on the best ways of educating the general public on how to protect themselves from STDs and AIDS, . the creation of directories containing information on the bodies offering assistance and support to AIDS sufferers and listing cases of discrimination, . finally, for STDs, the Commission suggested that in the context of exchanges of experience, the Community should finance exchanges of health professionals working in this field. Moreover, as suggested by the EP, it withdrew all references to the systematic screening of communicable diseases. �