31 Amendments of Michèle RIVASI related to 2014/2204(INI)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 a (new)
Citation 5 a (new)
– having regard to the statement of the WHO on the 9th of May 2015 on the end of the epidemic of the Ebola virus in Liberia;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas there are structural shortcomings in the health and education systems, in particular in the area of health education, in the three countries affected by the epidemic (Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea), which are also among those at the bottom of the UNDP's human development index, with around 80% of the countries' citizens living in extreme poverty; and whereas inequality is undermining health care and health;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the outbreak is the largest ever, and is currently affecting four countries in West Africa (Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali), while outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal have been declared to be over, and a separate outbreak in the DRC has also ended, whereas this outbreak is the largest ever because in particular of: - the structural adjustment policies imposed by the IMF and the World Bank causing a significant deterioration in healthcare facilities in these countries in order to meet their debts, - the spread of the virus being facilitated by deforestation leading to the destruction of the habitat of the virusʼ natural reservoirs, - failings in how the emergency was assessed by the international organisations concerned (WHO), - as well as the pharmaceutical industryʼs failure to develop a suitable treatment since the virus was first identified in 1976 on account of there being no real prospect of what might be considered a sufficiently profitable return;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. wWhereas the way this epidemic is unpredictable and constantly evolvingconstantly evolves is unpredictable, notably through lack of isolation facilities and skilled local medical workers, and because of the difficulties foreign medical workers have in winning the trust of the local people concerned which is a prerequisite to the success of their actions;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas in a large number of African countries, the health and education systems have deteriorated throughout the Structural Adjustment Programmes imposed by the IMF and World Bank, which required budget cuts in the public sector;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Cb. whereas the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has shown that local and national health systems in low income countries do not have the means or resilience to respond to an infectious disease outbreak like Ebola; whereas strengthening global health systems has therefore become an integral part of global health governance;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas the economic, social and political implications of this epidemic will have lasting consequences for the region, including threats to regional food security and social cohesion;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas the magnitude of the catastrophe can be attributed to several factors, among which: the political failure of the affected countries to sound the alarm; the ill-adapted response of the international community, the shattering effects of closure of borders and restrictions on people; the ineffectiveness of the surveillance and alert mechanisms; the slow and poorly adapted response, once aid was eventually mobilised; the stark absence of leadership from the WHO; the lack of research and development into drugs, diagnostics and vaccines;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D b (new)
Recital D b (new)
Db. whereas nearly 500 healthcare workers have died of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, in countries suffering already from a serious shortfall of staff before the outbreak of the Ebola crisis;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D c (new)
Recital D c (new)
Dc. whereas the need to ensure that medical care remains available for people with illnesses and conditions other than Ebola (malaria, chronic diseases, obstetrics care, etc.) implies to implement stringent policies to protect health facilities and health workers, particularly in areas where they might come into contact with patients;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas there is a need to integrate epidemiology, public health and social science to draw appropriate lessons from the Ebola outbreak;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas other elements that are essential to an Ebola Ebola epidemic has highlighted serious shortcomings in local health crisis prevention and response systems – such as awareness-raising and community acceptance, safe burials, contact tracing, alerts and surveillance, access to health care for non-Ebola patients – are still lacking in parts of West Africa;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K a (new)
Recital K a (new)
Ka. whereas the IMF structural adjustment policies bear some responsibility for the collapse of West African health care systems;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas clinical trials for different treatments should be starting soon in West Africaare planned in West Africa, stemming notably thanks to EU public funding from research programmes such as IMI (Innovative Medicines Initiative);
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas it isthe trauma of Ebola has left people distrustful of health facilities and health workers fearful of resuming services and has left communities impoverished and suspicious, whereas the basic relaunching of health services is urgent; and whereas it is equally essential to set up robust health systems in all developing countries, which also implies solid training of the local medical staff;
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
Ha. whereas targeting international aid solely on the Ebola virus and not on building up local capacity to run efficient healthcare systems may produce pernicious effects such as an upsurge in the incidence of other diseases, such as diarrhoeal diseases which cause child deaths and malaria, as a result of a let up in efforts to prevent and treat them;
Amendment 75 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Requires the Member States and the Commission to coordinate and strengthen medical research and the production of efficient medicines and vaccines against Ebola, and to advance the necessary clinical trials for existing candidate treatments, taking care to ensure these trials take place under ethical conditions whereby patients give informed consent prior to taking part, and there is transparency concerning clinical data stemming from this research and genuine access to these vaccines and treatment for the populations targeted (skilled staff and suitable facilities for administration of treatment, prices not to exceed the real cost of production);
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the heads of international organisations to learn from this situation, including the negative impacts of the conditionalities of IMF and the World Bank of the Structural Adjustment Facilities on the health sectors in developing countries, and to develop effective means of dealing with international health crises;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Takes the view that, once emergency assistance is no longer required, the EU response should focus first on development assistance, which will need to include investment in the health and other sectors, domestic governance and state-building and then on the assistance that is essential in order to get the three countries' economies back on their feet;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Reminds also of the importance of conflict prevention as conflicts and fragility have a very negative impact on health systems;
Amendment 98 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Commission to put in place control systems to ensure that the entire budget allocated to stopping the Ebola outbreakimproving healthcare and sanitation infrastructure, making it possible to tackle general health inequalities while combating the Ebola outbreak and preventing further health crises, is actually used to fight the epidemic in the countries affected by the virus and not for other purposes;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Urges the Commission to help the three countries affected to develop their own health systems in order for them to be able to meet basic healthcare needs and to build up the infrastructure required to ensure that all their citizens have access to healthcare; Deplores that past adjustments and reforms implemented as part of aid conditionalities have contributed to the weakening of governments in their capacity to deliver effective public services, including health systems, in the most affected countries; deplores equally that legacies of inequitable development policies and practises have contributed to pervasive atmospheres of mistrust; Urges the Commission to help the three countries affected to develop their own health systems in order for them to be able to meet basic healthcare needs and to build up the infrastructure required to ensure that all their citizens have access to healthcare; in particular, takes the view that building a resilient health system over the long term requires among others: (i) investing resources in basic public health services, with the aim to strengthen disease surveillance and reduce the risk of transmission of infections; (ii) ensuring safe and quality care by increasing resources to train, supervise and pay health workers adequately as well as by giving access to safe drugs; (iii) engaging local stakeholders and communities in crisis response and development planning, with the aim to rebuild trust in the health sector;
Amendment 109 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Stresses that the current crisis cannot be solved by health systems alone, but that a concerted approach involving different sectors (healthcare, education and training, sanitation, food aid, drinking water, economic development) is needed to address the critical gaps in all essential services; stresses that education, understood in a comprehensive way (also covering the cultural dimension and beliefs of these countries), and not only in terms of understanding and addressing the current Ebola outbreak, is key;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Supports the introduction of universal health cover based on partnerships that will result in sustainable health systemstresses upon the need to tackle social inequality to build a resilient sustainable health system; to this end, Supports the introduction of publicly-funded universal health coverage;
Amendment 135 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
Amendment 138 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Highlights that the Ebola crisis proves once more that health is a global public good; calls on the EU to develop a flexible approach to intellectual property towards developing countries regarding health and access to medicine; in particular, acknowledges the right of developing countries to use the full TRIPS flexibilities, including compulsory licencing, by which a government allows a third party to produce, import or sell a patented product or process without the consent of the right holder, in exchange for the payment of a royalty;
Amendment 139 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14b. Urges the EU not to restrain the scope or the use of TRIPS flexibilities through bilateral and multilateral trade or investment agreements with developing countries; reasserts equally that governments and parliaments of developing countries must retain the right to regulate private investment, including the right to impose conditions on technology transfer that support the country's development;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Stresses that the EU shall promote effective and fair financing of research that benefits the health of all and ensures that innovations and interventions lead to affordable and accessible solutions; in particular, reiterates that models that dissociate costs of Research and Development and the prices of medicines should be explored including the opportunities for technology transfer to developing countries;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Reiterates the need to invest in neglected diseases; Calls accordingly on the Commission to step up the discussions on this issue and to make arrangements for wide-ranging cooperation between the public and private sectors, aiming at reinforcing national health systems and facilitating transfers of results to the population concerned ;
Amendment 153 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Encourages taking immediate action to coordinate and strengthen medical research and the production of efficient medicines and vaccines against Ebola, taking care to secure ethical conditions for the trials by means of informed prior consent by the patients who take part in the trials, transparency in the clinical data resulting from this research and effective access to these vaccines and treatments by the populations concerned (qualified staff and adequate infrastructure for care delivery, with the price not exceeding the real cost of production), and to carry out scrupulous infection control; «
Amendment 159 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Requires all actors involved in the response to take a much more flexible approach and allocate resources according to: the most pressing local needs at any given time and place; - the need to prepare a transition towards a sustainable post-crisis situation that is favourable to peace.