Public health: Community action programme on health promotion, information, education and training 1996-2000

In its opinion following on from the opinion of the European Parliament at second reading, the Commission amended the Council's common position, taking over some of the amendments put forward by Parliament, including those aimed at: - setting the programme's budget at ECU 35 million (as opposed to the ECU 30 million proposed by the Council); - ensuring that the programme is implemented in close cooperation with the Member States; - taking account of past or present measures implemented by the Member States; - ensuring consistency and complementarity with other similar Community programmes and initiatives; - as regards action to be taken (annex to the programme), supporting: . work to increase awareness of the socio-economic and cultural differences involved in relation to health promotion, . measures targeted at disadvantaged sections of the population (the elderly, migrants, those from disadvantaged areas), . measures linked to diet and other aspects of daily life that may cause diseases, . measures designed to encourage physical activity and personal hygiene, . studies into the ageing of populations, . work to increase awareness of the psychological and cultural mechanisms affecting health and ways of providing information on healthy lifestyles, . the promotion of better health education programmes in schools (support for a network of health-promoting schools with the WHO), . measures aimed at young people who have left school. Similarly, the Commission maintained its basic reservation concerning the problem of comitology and did not take over certain amendments adopted by the EP, including, in particular, those relating to information for Parliament, cooperation with the NGOs working in the field of social integration, sex education, the prevention of certain diseases and the correct use of medicines. �