Members of the European Parliament all-party interest group MEPs against Cancer (MAC) have joined together to launch a Cancer Manifesto for the upcoming 2009 European Parliament elections. They are calling for the development and implementation of national cancer plans, investment in cancer prevention and promoting cancer awareness in the general public.
They are asking all candidates for the European Parliament elections to join forces in the new parliamentary term to work towards implementing the European Parliament Resolution to Combat Cancer in their member state and across the European Union. Together, MAC members hope to build a healthier Europe.
One third of European citizens are diagnosed with cancer, a disease which kills about 1.1 million each year. There are considerable inequalities in health status and cancer survival rates within and between member states of the European Union which will only increase under the current economic crisis as our health and social systems come under financial pressure.
“Health is wealth”
In the current financial crisis, it is important that investment in health and social security systems continues. European Commissioner for Health, Androulla Vassilliou, warned at the December 2008 MAC meeting that making cutbacks in healthcare in times of economic hardship was a false economy. Lowering spending on screening programmes would lead to fewer cases being detected early, when they were most amenable to treatment, causing greater suffering for patients and inevitably more deaths. But aside from the human aspect, the economic and societal costs and implications would be significantly higher. Investment in health pays future dividends.
About MAC – MEPs against Cancer
MEPs against cancer is an all-party informal group of 70 MEPs committed to promoting action on cancer as an EU priority and harnessing European health policy to that end.
For more information please visit the MAC website: www.mepsagainstcancer.org
European Parliament Cancer Resolution: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P6-TA-2008-0121&language=EN&ring=B6-2008-0132
MAC Manifesto: www.mepsagainstcancer.org
