35 Amendments of Norbert NEUSER related to 2014/2204(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1 a (new)
Citation 1 a (new)
– having regard to the European Commission's Communication COM(2010) 128 together with SEC(2010) 380, 381 and 382 on the EU Role in Global Health,
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 3 a (new)
Citation 3 a (new)
– having regard to the Council conclusions on the EU role in Global Health of the 3011th Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, 10 May 2010,
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 4 a (new)
Citation 4 a (new)
– having regard to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and to the 2011 EITI progress report of Sierra Leone, to the 2012 EITI progress report of Liberia and the 2012 EITI progress report of Guinea,
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 6 a (new)
Citation 6 a (new)
– having regard to EU Regulation No 1291/2013 of 11 December 2013 establishing Horizon 2020 - the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020),
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 a (new)
Citation 8 a (new)
– having regard to the WHO's International Health Regulations (IHR) of 2005 (WA 32.1),
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 b (new)
Citation 8 b (new)
– having regard to the French Ripost Program "Network of Public Health Institutes in West Africa",
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 c (new)
Citation 8 c (new)
– having regard to the recommendations from WHO's consultation on zoonoses of 5 May 2004,
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas people are still being infected with the virus in many parts of Guinea and Sierra Leone, while in Liberia the fact that there have been no new cases over the last month allows one to be cautiously optimistic that the worst may be over; whereas despite this hopes, new incidents of cases show that the virus can persist at least for weeks and months after recovery in immune-privileged sites of the body, as the central nervous system, gonads and articular cartilage; whereas EBOV was found in semen and in ocular fluid of convalescent persons; whereas there are single evident cases of sexual transmission which indicates difficulties to eradicate the virus and to determine a point of time when countries really can be regarded as Ebola free;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas still too little is known about the prevalence of EBOV in natural reservoir hosts, the transmission from the natural reservoir host of EBOV, transmission amongst humans, the EBOV's potential of mutation, the course of the infection, how to positively influence the course of the infection, late complications and long-term consequences, duration of infection risk emanating from convalescent patients, and other; whereas there is still not known enough about zoonoses in tropical environments as the Lofa region in West Africa in general that could potentially lead to dangerous pandemics; whereas also ethnographic research is useful in order to understand how communities work and how to reach people with different cultural backgrounds;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas access to medicines and to research and development findings in this area must be geared exclusively to the needs of sufferers, whetinfected people have to benefit from medicine, whereas the research agenda should be determined by the EU Scientific Panel for Health that was establisherd in Europe or in developing countriesthe framework of the Horizon 2020;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R a (new)
Recital R a (new)
Ra. whereas the health systems of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea contain massive gaps, and whereas the three countries already before the outbreak scored highest in the world in premature adult and under five mortality rates, mainly for treatable conditions such as diarrhoea, malaria, perinatal complications and a variety of others; whereas the number of health workers and health facilities is amongst the lowest in the world; whereas the countries' capacity to deal with epidemics has generally to be considered insufficient;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R b (new)
Recital R b (new)
Rb. whereas good hygiene practices are indispensable and effective in preventing the transmission of infections through the faecal-oral route; whereas however the three countries lack sufficiently working water and sanitation systems; whereas hygiene facilities have to be considered as part of a sustainable health system;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R c (new)
Recital R c (new)
Rc. whereas medical experts, researchers, the international community, and particularly the European Unions, identified the lack of functioning health systems as the main reason why the outbreak could not be stopped at an early stage and therefore as a reason for the scale of the epidemic and whereas it is to be feared that in case of any other outbreak, the scale of death toll would reoccur;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R d (new)
Recital R d (new)
Rd. whereas the High Representative/ Vice-President Federica Mogherini, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and EU Ebola Coordinator Christos Stylianides, the European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica, Members of the European Parliament, governments and parliamentarians of the member states repeatedly called for health system strengthening;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R e (new)
Recital R e (new)
Re. whereas the European Union is the biggest donor of development aid in the world; whereas the EU dedicated almost 1.4 billion Euros to the Ebola crisis; whereas this amount enables the EU to negotiate with partner countries and other donors to support comprehensive national health system development effectively that builds up on a coherent, inclusive, needs- based strategy;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R f (new)
Recital R f (new)
Rf. whereas under the 11th EDF health system strengthening and strengthening of water and sanitation services are only among the focal sectors for Guinea, but not for Liberia and Sierra Leone;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R g (new)
Recital R g (new)
Rg. whereas the 2010 European Commission's Communication presents a comprehensive and holistic, needs-based global health strategy that was endorsed by the member states;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R h (new)
Recital R h (new)
Rh. whereas Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are countries with vast natural resources such as iron ore, diamonds, gold, bauxite, timber and other;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R i (new)
Recital R i (new)
Ri. whereas not all states fully implemented the IHR; whereas IHR should be revised after gaining experience during the latest Ebola epidemic; whereas a single infected person arriving in Lagos by plane set off a chain of transmission with 19 infected people, of whom 7 died; whereas, according to a research article in 1982, Ebola was at least prevalent in Western Africa back then; whereas most probably increased mobility also from remote areas in the present days led to rapid spread of Ebola, multiplied chains of transmission and subsequently to the scale of the epidemic;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R j (new)
Recital R j (new)
Rj. whereas little is known about potentially dangerous zoonoses in the tropical rain forest in the Liberian Lofa district and border region to Sierra Leone and Guinea; whereas it is estimated that 70 per cent of infectious diseases in animals has zoonotic potential that is, can be under circumstances transmitted to humans;
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R k (new)
Recital R k (new)
Rk. whereas food and agricultural practices, deforestation, trade of animals or animal product lead to the emergence of newly evolving zoonotic diseases such as avian influenza, Ebola, and HIV;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R l (new)
Recital R l (new)
Rl. whereas the WHO recommends coordination between public health and veterinary sectors;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Considers in this regard coherent needs-based health plans for the respective affected countries as indispensable to build up functioning health systems; recognises the work done by the Commission, the WHO, the World Bank and other donors already to examine the respective country situation and the health situation; calls on the Commission to build up on this work and re-examine it where necessary and feasible by impact assessments in order to determine the health needs of the populations that is, the necessary number of health workers, hospital beds, laboratory facilities, water and sanitation services, mobile solutions for remote areas but also to provide a statistical overview over a sufficiently correct number of people, the different living conditions in different regions and the most frequent causes of death for adult and for children under five; calls on the Commission to establish in cooperation with partner countries, WHO, World Bank and other donors coherent health plans for the respective countries and to deliberate together how these plans can be implemented; calls on the Commission to establish monitoring procedures in order to follow up on the implementation and present regular reports on the implementation progress;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Welcomes the Commission's 2010 communication on the EU role in global health and its holistic vision on comprehensive health systems, its horizontal approach and its endeavour for universal health coverage; encourages the Commission to review this communication in the light of new insights gained during the Ebola crisis whereby keeping the comprehensive and horizontal approach and to present and implement a Programme for Action in a timely manner;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses, in general, the need for developing countries to give budgetary priority to setting up robust social security and health systems, building sustainable healthcare infrastructure (in particular laboratories) and offering high-quality basic services and healthcare; emphasises the need for sufficient health workers per population and calls on the governments of the affected countries to ensure that health workers are paid and that money for health reaches the people;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Stresses the importance of augmenting global epidemiological research capacity, developing 'quick tests' and providing access to vaccines; underlines that although vaccines are welcome, they are most probably not suitable to eradicate Ebola, as the virus is mutating; stresses therefore, that funding priority has to be given to general health system strengthening, hygiene, containment, reliable quick testing in tropical settings and medication targeting the virus and the symptoms it causes;
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Takes the view that the research agenda should be determined by priorities identified by the EU Scientific Panel for Health; stresses that panel members should be independent of financial interest that arise from other positions; underlines that in case of tropical disease, scientists of the affected countries should be included in the panel that do not represent third party financial interests; underlines that researchers with different disciplinary background should be part of the panel, such as physicians, epidemiologists, virologists, microbiologists, zoologists, veterinarians and ethnologists; stresses that research has to be done from the source which is, why not only profit-maximising applied research is needed, but as well fundamental research to understand root causes and the various aspects of phenomena and field studies;
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Supports the idea of a 'Marshall Plan' to help kick-start those countries' economies; suggests to offer technical assistance to the administration to enhance the capacity and to ensure that money reaches the people and is not lost to corruption or other purposes;
Amendment 137 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Believes that European Development Fund programming for the three countries will need to be reviewed to take account of the numerous challenges to which the Ebola crisis has given rise; welcomes the numerous calls for health system strengthening by EU representatives, institutions and member states; is concerned that health and water and sanitation are not among the focal sectors in the National Indicative Programmes of Liberia and Sierra Leone; calls on the Commission in this regard to monitor the implementation of health system strengthening and water and sanitation services in order to rededicate focal sectors after the mid-term review if necessary; recommends that the Commission pays attention to health in existent focal sectors, that is, e.g., strengthening health governance and health education in the framework of the respective focal sectors; calls on the Commission to not only formulate milestones, indicators and targets, but also establish mechanisms to monitor aid more closely in order to make sure that it serves its purposes;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Takes note of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in July 2015 in Addis Ababa; encourages the Commission to deliberate together with other donors and partner countries about how to finance health system strengthening and universal health coverage, e.g., through establishing health facilities; calls on the Commission and the member states to base their aid decisions on the commitment to comprehensive health system strengthening; calls on the affected countries to take responsibility for their population and contribute to the development of health systems in using tax revenues and gains from the extraction of natural resources, whose potential to boost fiscal revenues is by and large not well exploited due to inadequacy of tax rules and unfair share of resource revenue between investors and governments;
Amendment 151 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. 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, provided safeguards measures are introduced to prevent that public private partnership harm vulnerable people in an unregulated market;
Amendment 154 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Welcomes that IHR stresses the responsibility of each state party to respond to public health risks, to comply to the implementation plan and to accept assistance when necessary, but also the obligation of non-affected state parties to mobilize financial resources and support the affected states; underlines that Ebola and other epidemics are transnational threats that call for international cooperation; calls on the WHO to revise IHR with view to interdependent responsibility, financial support also for root causes as insufficient health systems, measures that prioritise safety over economic interests, but safeguard independent logistic supply of goods and medical personnel;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 b (new)
Paragraph 19 b (new)
19b. Welcomes in the light of sketchy IHR implementation and lack of epidemiological surveillance the French Ripost Program "Network of Public Health Institutes in West Africa"; underlines the importance of interregional and international cooperation, most notably in the fields of data exchange, exchange of expertise, training for a decentralised health response and use of laboratory networks; calls on the Commission to join and support this network that links West African health ministries with the district level, but also with international entities as the European Union, CDC, World Bank and laboratories as the Institute Pasteur Network;
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 c (new)
Paragraph 19 c (new)
19c. Considers communities as fundamental part of a national surveillance and response network to epidemics; underlines that the disease has to be understood in order to gain confidence of the people and acceptance for measures, which is why therefore full insight in the course of the disease has to be made available; stresses that now that the outbreak is on a decline, while the virus stays in the gonads for months after recovery, sexual counselling and family planning has to be made available as part of the health system and education measures; believes that this will contribute to a better understanding, less fear amongst the people and just promote the insertion of survivors;
Amendment 157 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 d (new)
Paragraph 19 d (new)
19d. Stresses the link between zoonoses and diseases in humans and suggests therefore to support veterinary services for cattle and to include veterinaries in surveillance networks and include findings in databases;