In the past years we have been witnessing a major crisis in health issues.

1-Health and environment: there is a major change in the diseases epidemiology:

Increase of allergies, cancers, respiratory infections, reproduction problems, obesity, degenerative diseases (Alzheimer, Parkinson etc...) etc... All these changes are mainly due to the modifications of environment (pollution, pesticides, chemicals, climate change, food, etc...)

2-New world outbreaks: Avian flue, AIDS, ARS, are crossing not only the country borders but also the species borders, and affecting humans.

3-Mental health: coming from the USA, but also inside Europe the use of Psychiatry and drugs as a tool for social repression is more and more widely spread.

4-Therapeutics: All the therapy is based on drugs. As a result and because research is weak, pharmaceutical industry is asking for patents extension for expensive drugs. At the same time governments refuse all recognition or even simple evaluation of alternative therapeutics. The consequences for the South are even worse than in Europe.

5-New threats: changes in food and therapeutics (GMOs, gen-therapies, cells transformations, cloning) do not respect the precaution principle and are potential threats for health.

6-Crisis of public health and their financing : All these issues, but also aging of the population and increase of  unemployed will result in a major crisis in the public health system. The liberal policies in Europe have a will to break the social system of solidarity and replace it by private insurances. After the reform of NHS in UK, the reform of the French system, Netherlands have totally privatised the health system since 1st of January 2006.

Actually the present health policies focus more on a «disease management» that exploits the more and more profitable and expensive medicine services than on a health promotion based in the precaution.

It is time now for the Greens to have a common reflexion and common actions on these issues.

The Green perspective is different to that of others parties.

For the Greens, the approach is a global one. Public health cannot be dealt with only by focusing on the issue of care.

The Helsinki Council of the European Green Party proposes:

1-    to organize a debate on this issue either in a plenary session in the coming Geneva Congress

2-    to organize during the Geneva Congress a fringe meeting between Greens in charge of health inside the national parties and the GGEP

3-    to organize a Conference in Spring 2007 on Green proposals

Annex paper to health resolution

Draft proposals for health program by Didier Claude ROD

a)     Risk prevention, education and health promotion

Prevention is a key word to deal with Public Health.

The Greens believe it is essential to:

• Promote an industry and agriculture respectful of environment and health

• Ban products which are dangerous for health, like pesticides or glycols

• Support a new REACH directive

• Develop the education on health and health issues at school or at work

• Change the type of alimentation

• Etc…

b)    Reform of the care System

I will only quote some of the numerous proposals:

• Greens propose a deep reform of the hospital, which must be   

• Refocused on its essential aim like real emergencies, heavy  

• Care and surgery, research

• Develop health networking, links between hospitals and   outside doctors, between doctors and all medical professionals

• Generalize the Centres of health; in order to have an efficient system of proximity, centres where you can find all paramedical staff, doctors, dentists, some specialists, etc…

• Reduce consuming of drugs by regulating pharmaceutical industry and favour generic drugs.

• Give its place to medical pluralism and alternative medicine by allowing evaluation.

• Etc…

c)     Reform of the financing System

The greens propose a reform towards more solidarity, that is to say :

• The income must not to be based only on wages but also on added value and turnover

• Increase the part of the income tax not only on wages but also on all financial incomes

• Implement the principle “ who pollutes, pays” by putting a special tax on activities which are responsible for health damage (not only tobacco or alcohol, but also pesticides, GMOs, mobile phones etc)

• Etc…