Public health: Community action programme 2003-2008

The Commission welcomes the broad thrust of the Council's common position and notes that it supports the Commission in three of the following priority areas: - matters relating to health information; - rapid reaction to health threats; and - tackling health determinants. The Commission nevertheless expresses reservation over important aspects of the proposed Decision which have been omitted from the Council's common position. These omission centre around three key elements: Firstly, the Council has failed to take up important elements of the programme relating to work in the health system. This includes information and analysis on quality issues, the effectiveness of health interventions and guidelines. Secondly, large swathes of the Commission text has been rewritten by the Council. Whilst the Commission accepts that in certain cases this has made the text more readable, it has been done at the expense of restricting the possibilities for action and reducing the clarity of work to be undertaken. Thirdly, the Commission expresses disappointed that the Council has decided to reduce its proposal for funding from EUR 300 million to EUR 280 million. This, the Commission argues, will mean that certain actions foreseen under the programme can not be properly implemented. In summary, the Commission concludes that it retains deep reservations over the reduced budgetary proposals and that it will investigate further the structural arrangements set up to implement the programme in the context of its mid-term review.�