Commissioner Byrne's Speech on 'A global health strategy for the European Union'

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to be here at the 7th European Health Forum, in Gastein. This is my last 'Gastein' as European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection. I have had the great privilege over the years to see this event grow - both in size and significance.

Let me pay tribute to Dr. Günter Leiner and his team for creating this unique forum. I was very honoured to receive an award from the Land of Salzburg on Wednesday. But in reality, Dr Leiner, placing Gastein at the centre of European health debate is due to your determination, your dedication and your hospitality.

Sometimes, health policymaking at EU level is a little like Gastein - many steep slopes and some very deep valleys! But because of the effort required, sometimes we do not see the potential international significance of what we are working together to achieve.

The title of this session addressing 'Europe's role as partners in world health' bears testament to a timely ambition

In our bitterly divided world, Europe is increasingly being called upon to develop imaginative approaches to healing these divisions.

At a decisive moment in the definition of Europe's foreign policy and security identity, I would like to explore the vital role which health could play in shaping a progressive relationship between Europe and our global partners.

In short I would like to underline that greater European leadership on global health could prove vital in healing global divisions.

Before examining the nuts and bolts of this approach,

I would like to set out a few basic ideas which my five years at the decision-making table, have brought home to me.

First, despite all the academic debate about an emerging European foreign and security identity, the issue is no longer whether Europe should have a global role, but how we intend to act.

We have now to step up to the mark and meet our responsibilities to work for peace, prosperity and security on the global stage in new and effective ways.

There are signs that we have not lost our strategic optimism. As this week's decision on Turkey's future confirms, we Europeans continue to believe in a progressive and inclusive political future.

We are committed to the belief that our ambitions for peace, prosperity, well-being, democracy, human rights and equality before the law, are common human ambitions. They are the global essentials

We are convinced that they are a universal birthright - not subject to cultural or religious endorsement or so-called "civilisation clash". As Europeans, our progressive belief that these rights are both universal and achievable is unfashionably optimistic. But if ever our troubled world needed optimism, now is the moment.

But our optimism, is hardened by our experience. Our convictions that peaceful transitions are possible between radically different peoples, is shaped by our familiarity with where we have come from in our own history to get here.

On our path to European reconciliation, for centuries, we have seen and done it all - wars of religion, famine, mechanised warfare, and ethnic cleansing.

Europe's development from once being the charnel-house of the world, to peaceful continental reunification, is nothing short of a modern political miracle.

From the ashes of the past we are building a domain of freedom, justice, security, prosperity, good health and equality before the law. Given the price paid by our ancestors for this precious insight, it should guide and illuminate our future actions abroad.

Future EU behaviour in the world abroad, should reflect that we have learned the lessons of our own history. Lessons about interdependence; diversity; mutual respect, consensus and the rule of law.

Lessons above all, about how improving the health, wealth and welfare of ordinary people, delivers a stable and durable consensus for progressive inclusive politics.

In place of the old-world muscular ideology of force, Europe needs to find more innovative ways to work with our partners to avoid conflict, deepen interdependence and make economic and social progress. In acting abroad, Europe must show the courage of our own hard-won convictions.

We must continue to define our approach by addressing the structural causes of conflict wherever they arise - rather than reaching for simplistic solutions to the symptoms. This means turning all our policies to tackle the age-old origins of conflict in hunger, squalor, ignorance, idleness and disease, wherever they arise.

By placing the improvement of global health at the centre of our emerging foreign policy agenda, we could transform our international partnerships, tackle a root cause of instability and make a persuasive case for the practical benefits of progressive politics.

By placing a well-resourced health diplomacy at the centre of our foreign relations, Europe's progressive ambitions for our partnerships could be quickly understood and clearly demonstrated in very visible and practical ways.

Very often conflict is the child of despair. By working to improve global health, we can help to give many people a real stake in the future

At present, we hear a lot of comment about security. But as each one of us knows, security begins with getting the small things in life right, for the individual. Our health. Our welfare. Our access to knowledge and work. It then grows into a collective culture of confident development.

A concentrated effort to improve global health would transform individual perceptions and collective behaviour on security fundamentally.

We need to be obsessed with addressing poverty and disease which are the real weapons of individual destruction. We need to focus on what can do to close the global health-gap, to increase life expectancy, to reduce infant mortality and to improve maternal health.

To increase healthy life years for the global many as well as for the European few.

If we want to make a real difference to global security in the long term, we should start here with global health.

For many of our fellow global citizens, such changes would allow them to lift up their eyes from the dust of despondency to consider a future horizon. To consider the things which we take for granted - the prospect of seeing their children grow up. Or the dream of completing an education. Or the opportunity to capitalise on decades of development, by preventing killer diseases like HIV/Aids, TB and Malaria from wiping out a whole generation.

Because, you must first have a future, before working with others to secure it.

Looking across the EU policy horizon from Trade and External Economic Relations to Development, it is striking just how active the EU already is on health matters with our global partners.

We have taken a leading role in tackling communicable diseases, in mainstreaming healthcare in poverty reduction, and in the development of vital clinical research platforms.

We have worked hard with our partners to secure the Doha declaration on TRIPs and public health, to facilitate access to essential medicines in less-developed countries.

In all of this, we can begin to see the outlines of a coherent overarching E.U. global health strategy.

But first things first. Any such strategy abroad, should reflect our strategy at home. And just such a European Health Strategy is beginning to take shape.

European Health strategy

Health is taking its place at the centre of European policymaking, from competitiveness to structural funds.

We have an integrated public health programme in place. We have also strengthened the institutional structures for health, the establishment of the ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control).

But this is only a start. Good health should be nothing less than a defining aim and benefit of EU citizenship for every European. In the future, every Commissioner should be a Commissioner for health.

This is why I have launched a reflection process on how to enable good health for all. Good health needs to be defined in much broader terms than simply the prevention of illness.

The concept of good health embraces the life-long physical and mental well-being that is essential for people to lead meaningful, enjoyable and productive lives. This is also part of the foundation on which modern economic progress is based.

Good health for all

Achieving this means doing more than just attempting to mitigate and cure sickness when it arises. It requires a more positive and forward-looking approach to actively promote health for the future.

The importance of good health is certainly recognised by citizens. Health is consistently rated amongst the top questions of concern to people throughout Europe, and health-related stories feature heavily on the news agenda. Yet good health for all is far from being a reality in today's Europe.

Yet depending on where you live, your average male life expectancy may vary between 64 and 78. With the recent enlargement of the Union, the internal 'health gap' has widened even further.

However, in some of the poorest nations of the earth, life expectancy is only a little over half that of Europeans. And even for our near neighbours, the gap is striking - the average life expectancy for Russian men is under sixty.

If we really believe in an interdependent world, our health strategy must tackle these issues. We must aim to make the European Union a leading global partner for health.

Health threats - a shared challenge

We are now living in an era where the concept of global health security and global health defences are a reality.

Whether we are considering bioterrorism, malaria, influenza pandemics, or the impact of HIV/Aids, global threats require global health security responses.

We cannot and should not therefore attempt simply to create a healthy corner of an unhealthy world. The borders of the EU should not be seen as a new cordon sanitaire.

We are already putting in place joint initiatives with our neighbours on health-related issues. Take the example of HIV/AIDS. The ministerial conference on HIV/AIDS in Europe held in Vilnius last month endorsed a strategy bringing together the European Union, neighbouring countries, other stakeholders and international organisations.

This is a model for wider future cooperation on health issues. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate my colleague Pavel Telička for his leadership on this issue.

Health as a driver of economic growth and sustainable development

On the theme of health generating overall wealth, this is even more pertinent to less developed countries. Sustainable development hinges on extending healthy life years.

Compare the development of the East Asian "tiger economies" with the less-developed countries of Africa.

Life expectancy in East Asia increased from 39 years in 1960 to 67 years in 1990. Improved health increased the labour supply which helped to drive development.

In contrast, more than half of Africa's growth shortfall is due to disease burden, demography and geography. High levels of malaria morbidity alone are a substantial brake on growth; and are associated with a reduction in economic growth of one percent per year.

EU's role as a global partner for health

The case for pursuing health at a global level is clearly a powerful one. But what should Europe's role be as a partner in this initiative?

I believe that we must do more to actively promote health and to prevent threats to health before they materialise.

We are working with the WHO and other partners on the revision of the International Health Regulations, in order to put in place a modern global framework to control the spread of communicable diseases. The ECDC will provide a key liaison function with the WHO on future health threats.

I am delighted that during my mandate we have fundamentally strengthened our cooperation with the WHO: The WHO continue to show the way on global health leadership.

Our ongoing work together to deliver the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control the world's first public health treaty is a clear model for future action.

We now need to consolidate and further this leadership in relation to other issues - such as working on nutrition, physical activity and obesity alongside the WHO global strategy on diet, physical activity and health.

But this means getting our own house in order on internal policies from the Common Agricultural Policy to recruitment of health professionals.

Overall position of health at world level

Perhaps most importantly, we can act as advocates for a long-term vision for health at global level.

In the reflection process that I have launched for the European Union, I set out my vision for health in twenty years time - a vision where politics, money and modern technology are all geared towards good health, and where citizens live longer, happier and more productive lives.

This vision also needs to be constantly restated and promoted at global level.

We have also been putting health on the agenda in our work in other international groupings, such as our work on bio-terrorism within the G7.

Beyond governments, we will need our other stakeholders in civil society, professional organisations, and all those active in the field of health and healthcare to take forward this ambitious global health agenda.

{And here I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the support, advice and commitment of my hardworking officials in SANCO. It is a real tribute to you - how far we have travelled with so few resources. Thanks to your achievements, my successor Markos Kyprianou will have the wind at his back and a clear course ahead!}

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would accept that this is an ambitious agenda. But at a moment in world history when a progressive global consensus on the rights of all women and men is increasingly fragile, we need to be bold.

We must continue to mobilise the international community to address the causes of global conflict, which arise in the agony and despair of so many human lives.

Europe needs to raise a new progressive voice in international diplomacy. We need to find a common language through which we can open a common dialogue for hope with those who are often sceptical about our values and our intentions

The shared concern for our own health and the health of our children, is a common language of human progress understood by all peoples and cultures. Global action will speak louder than any words.

Placing a European global health strategy at the centre of our foreign and security policy agenda, will help to change the context. If we can show global leadership in closing the health-gap, in increasing healthy life years, and in reducing infant mortality, we would have our own living ambassadors of progress in every corner of the world.

Our European vision of enabling good health for all, is a global duty. Especially at this moment in world history. Because global healing, needs global health.

Thank you.

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