On 11 July, a meeting of the ENVI Committee (Environment, Public Health and Food Safety) of the European Parliament took place, to consider the draft opinion of the Committee on the 2017 draft EU budget.
As Rapporteur, Giovanni La Via (EPP, Italy) summarized the draft opinion. The MEP says that Brexit may impact the opinion. That is the reason why “we have to focus our attention on Heading 3” dedicated to Security and Citizenship, including health. He recalled that the draft budget proposes €64.5 million in commitments (+3.8% compared to 2016) and €57.7 million in payments (-17.8%) for health, and regretted that this represents only 0,04% in commitments. As far as European agencies are concerned, the Italian MEP pointed out that following the Brexit referendum, unforeseen costs for EMA may arise in 2017.
Karin Kadenbach (S&D, Austria) announced that her political group will table amendments to strengthen some points, including public health, because this issue “is also related to migration and security so we need to have the corresponding finances available” she argued.
The Commission representative (DG Health) stated that the draft budget is in line with the multiannual programming in health, and that the Commission does not see any problems with the financing of agencies for 2017.
For more information, the draft opinion can be found here and the draft EU budget here.
