04/06/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The handling of the H1N1 pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), EU agencies and national governments led to a “waste of large sums of public money, and unjustified scares and fears about the health risks faced by the European public”, according to a report by PACE's Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee made public today in Paris. The report, prepared by Paul Flynn (United Kingdom, SOC) and approved today by the committee ahead of a plenary debate at the end of this month, says there was “overwhelming evidence that the seriousness of the pandemic was vastly overrated by WHO”, resulting in a distortion of public health priorities. Presenting his report, Mr Flynn told the committee: “this was a pandemic that never really was”...
02/06/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee of PACE is due to adopt the report by Paul Flynn (United Kingdom, SOC) on “The handling of the H1N1 pandemic: more transparency needed” at its meeting in Paris on 4 June.On this occasion, the committee members will be holding an exchange of views...
28/05/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“Food production is due to double by 2050 but it is difficult to see how there can be any more land on which to grow crops”, said Yann Fichet, Director of Institutional and Industrial Affairs at Monsanto-France, addressing the members of the PACE Committee on the Environment at a hearing on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), in preparation for a report on this question by Jean-François Le Grand (France, EPP/CD).
28/05/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The PACE Committee on the Environment today noted that although there has been a significant decrease in the surface area covered by forests in developing countries, in Europe such surface areas are increasing as a “result of a serious scientific approach to reforestation”. With the aim of securing the sustainable use of forests, the Committee this morning adopted a draft resolution calling on European states to use forests in a way “not exceeding their capacity for regeneration” and in line with “good management and conservation of forest biodiversity”.
25/05/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE Environment Committee will hold a hearing on genetically modified organisms at the Council of Europe Office in Paris, at 2.30pm on 28 May, to prepare a report on the subject by Jean-François Le Grand (France, EPP/CD).
21/05/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The situation of local democracy in Venezuela will be central to the exchange of views which PACE's Committee on Local and Regional Affairs will hold in Paris on Friday 28 May 2009 starting at 9.30 am (55, avenue Kléber, 75116 Paris, Boissière metro station). The meeting will be open to the press. Prominent among the participants are Diego Arria, former Ambassador of Venezuela to the UN, and Juan Carlos Alvarez, son and lawyer of Oswaldo Alvarez, a Venezuelan objector and former candidate to the Presidency of the Republic.
26/04/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
At the end of its parliamentary debate on lobbying, PACE recommended that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe draw up a European code of conduct on lobbying, based in particular on a very clear definition of lobbying activities, a strengthening of transparency and the laying down of rules applicable to politicians, civil servants, members of pressure groups and business enterprises.
16/04/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The future Medicrime Council of Europe Convention “is not expected to eliminate counterfeit medicines or to make counterfeiters extinct, but it criminalises counterfeiting,” and reflects the governments and parliaments’ willingness to “reaffirm their commitment to co-operating in the detection of counterfeit medical products and combat this phenomenon," Bernard Marquet (Monaco, ALDE) said yesterday, at the opening of a conference on this issue.
29/03/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“The next time someone cries wolf over a pandemic, the overwhelming majority will not take it seriously,” participants were told today at a hearing on the handling of the H1N1 pandemic, organised in Paris by PACE’s Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee. “A pandemic cannot be whatever the WHO declares it is. If it turns out that former PACE member Wolfgang Wodarg was right when he said the pandemic was decided to help the pharmaceutical industry make bigger profits, this might well turn out to be one of the biggest health scandals,” said Paul Flynn (United Kingdom, SOC), PACE rapporteur on this issue.
22/03/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Strasbourg, 22.03.2010 – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is to hold a second public hearing on the subject “The handling of the H1N1 pandemic: more transparency needed” in Paris on Monday 29th March, followed by a press conference.Participants at the hearing, organised...
19/02/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Committee on the Environment yesterday adopted the report by Rafael Huseynov (Azerbaijan, ALDE) describing the harm caused by noise and light pollution to man and other living species. Such pollution can have serious repercussions, such as disturbing ecosystems and provoking diseases in humans. The rapporteur believes that the fight against such pollution is a major environmental and public health challenge. He calls for an integrated approach to the problem and for efforts to raise awareness of the whole of society.
26/01/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
"Are decisions on pandemics taken on the best scientific evidence only?" was the question asked at a January public hearing of PACE's Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs which looked into the handling of the H1N1 pandemic. The World Health Organisation's flu chief defended his...