Public health: Programme of Community action 1999-2003 on pollution-related diseases

In presenting its amended proposal, the Commission has incorporated 2 of the 14 amendments adopted by the European Parliament. These refer to: - changes in objectives on the basis of evaluating during the course of the programme; - introducing promotion of knowledge of behaviour and lifestyles to reduce health risks. The Commission has rejected the remaining amendments which: - delete the recital referring to "light comitology"; - change the focus of the programme away from development of policy to inter alia a public information programme. The Commission considers that this would weaken its impact greatly; - impose a requirement on the Commission to take necessary measures to ensure consistency and complementarity with other Community programmes and notify these after six months. The Commission considers that it would be virtually impossible to identify all the other policy areas concerned, and equally impossible to "take necessary measures" and to notify them six months afterwards; - increase the budget to 7 MECU from 3.9 MECU and require an evaluation report at the end of the programme, rather than in its third year. The Commission considers that these amendments imply that the programme might last beyond the 3-year period planned; - require the Commission, on the basis of the evaluation report, to submit proposals for specific measures to be taken as it imposes unjustified obligations on the Commission; - introduce the idea of a contribution to the realization of Community-wide epidemiological studies, as the nature, duration, financial resources and scope of the programme are not such as to allow the meaningful support of such studies; - shorten the title of an annex heading, as the suggested revised title would not correctly reflect its contents.�