Public health: Community action programme 1997-2001 on health monitoring

In its opinion amending the proposal following the second reading by the European Parliament, the Commission announced that it was able to incorporate, in full or in part, 11 of the 19 amendments approved by Parliament. These amendments relate to: - cooperation with third countries and the competent international organizations; - studies on the creation of a European Health Observatory; - a system of Community monitoring of telematics type networks; - support for the dissemination of reports and information for Member States and international organizations; - comitology (advisory committee rather than a joint committee). It also insisted that the programme should result in the implementation of a gradually harmonized (rather than merely "comparable") system of data collection. However, the Commission did not incorporate amendments seeking to increase the budgetary allocation to ECU 20 million and preferred to stand by its initial proposal of ECU 13.8 million. It also deleted the paragraph on the assessment of the programme as a basis for subsequent proposals in this field.�