Informal Health Council

Tuesday 13th July 2010 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Anne Milton)]

European Union Health Ministers met in Brussels for an informal meeting of the EPSCO (Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council ) Council on 5 and 6 July. I represented the UK.

The morning session of 5 July consisted of a discussion of EU-level collaboration on cancer. A number of member states indicated their support for greater information sharing and production of comparable data on cancer outcomes at EU level.

There was also discussion of the EU’s response to the A(H1N1) pandemic (building on the expert conference held on 1 and 2 July by the Belgian presidency). Discussion focused upon the issues of vaccine procurement, and the wider EU co-ordination of pandemic response.

The EU structures for responding to health emergencies (such as pandemics) were also discussed. This included a discussion of the possibility of revising the mandate of the Health Security Committee, whose mandate expires in December 2010.