Last month, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the fight against diabetes. It is a victory for a small group of MEPs, including myself, who have been striving to put this item on the agenda for the past two and a half years.
More needs to be done to fight diabetes and sooner rather than later. Even at EU level- Simon Busuttil
The victory was even sweeter given that the resolution was supported by an overwhelming majority of MEPs across the political spectrum.
It was an important step for more than 32 million EU citizens who suffer from diabetes and another 32 million citizens who are at great risk of contracting it in the course of their lives.
As it happens, Malta has one of the highest prevalence of diabetes sufferers.
I am not a medical doctor but even I can see that the situation is very worrying. This is why for the past few years I have been working to push the problem of diabetes up the EU policy agenda. It has not been easy and we have faced a lot of resistance.
This is because public health remains very much a matter of national competence at member state level and, therefore, the EU has very limited powers to do something about this. For this reason, initiatives on specific diseases are often resisted in European institutions in favour of more horizontal approaches that touch upon different diseases or public health risks at the same time.
However, the EU does have all sorts of powers that can affect diabetes and the people who suffer from it in a good number of ways, even if indirectly. Be it food labelling, where the EU has elaborate laws. Or funding for research, where the EU puts in big money. Or even in the EU’s own limited health initiatives, such as on obesity. All these EU initiatives do have a bearing on the fight against diabetes.
Moreover, exchange of knowledge, research and best practices as well as cooperation among health authorities in different EU countries provide invaluable benefits to people who suffer from diabetes. This is why I always insisted that, despite its limited room for action, there was a good case to be made at European level.
That case has now been made, loud and clear, in a resolution of the European Parliament. And I was very proud to see it supported so strongly despite all the resistance that we faced.
The vote came hot on the heels of a debate in the Chamber with the Council and the Commission on actions to address the diabetes epidemic.
The debate acknowledged that, with the right care strategies, diabetes patients can, in most cases, lead a pretty normal lifestyle. But, unfortunately, one of the major problems is that diabetes is frequently diagnosed too late, leading to severe complications in human health that, in many cases, could have been avoided.
Indeed, I was struck when I learnt that up to 50 per cent of all people with diabetes are unaware of their condition.
There is then the issue of costs. Often, cost constraints and limited budgets are the reason why we cannot spend more to provide bigger and better health care solutions. But from a cost perspective, investing in the fight against diabetes actually pays in cost savings because managing diabetes means less money spent overall on the high health care costs of fighting complications of unmanaged diabetes. To me, therefore, the answer is clear. More needs to be done to fight diabetes and sooner rather than later. Even at EU level.
For starters, we are asking the European Commission to draw up a European Diabetes Strategy, an action plan of how we can better fight the disease together.
Secondly, we are calling on EU countries to intensify their efforts to fight the disease by adopting their own national diabetes strategy.
Thirdly, we are pushing the EU to facilitate better cooperation and coordination of European diabetes research so that we can learn from each other how to better tackle the disease and put this learning into practice.
These three points were clearly spelt out in the European Parliament resolution.
It is now for the European Commission to react to the European Parliament’s clear demands. And while the Commission is not bound to follow our demands to a “t”, it has already publicly stated that it will consider how it can accommodate our requests for further action.
The fact that the Commissioner responsible for Health also happens to be our very own John Dalli makes it that much easier for the Commission to commit itself to do its best within its limited powers. And I have high hopes that Mr Dalli will put his weight behind this and leave his mark on this just cause.
This resolution was an important milestone in putting the fight against diabetes on the EU agenda. And having worked so hard to get it there, my colleagues and I will see to it that it stays there.
If you suffer from diabetes or if you are related to someone who does, you will be pleased to know that we have finally got Europe to listen.
www.simonbusuttil.eu
Dr Busuttil is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.