Health: Community action programme 2008-2013

The Council held a debate on the Community programme on action in the field of health and consumer protection 2007-2013.

The debate gave delegations an opportunity to state their initial reactions to the Commission proposal which brings together, in a single integrated programme, the objectives pursued by the two public health and consumer protection programmes currently in place. Delegations also stressed the need to enhance the added value of the common actions in this area, pointing, in particular, that it would be useful to improve cooperation between Member States' health systems and to improve the way in which cross-border health threats (pandemics) were addressed. They also pointed to the need to deal with the risk factors in order to prevent major diseases.

Following the debate, the President concluded that these objectives were very broadly shared by the delegations.