{"value":{"id":349843,"memberId":3918,"member":null,"memberRole":"The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Health","uin":"HCWS24","dateMade":"2015-06-11T00:00:00","answeringBodyId":17,"answeringBodyName":"Department of Health","title":"Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSCO) Council in Luxembourg: 19 June 2015","text":"<p>The Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council will meet on 18-19 June in Luxembourg. The Health and Consumer Affairs part of the Council will take place in the morning of 19 June.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The main agenda item is the following:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Regulations on medical devices and <em>in vitro</em> diagnostic medical devices: the Presidency plans a General Approach on medical devices. The regulations seek to address weaknesses in the current regulatory system, ensure a more consistent level of implementation across the EU, and ensure that the EU will continue to be viewed by business as an innovation-friendly regulatory environment.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The UK has broadly supported the Commission’s proposals in order to ensure high standards of patient safety. At the outset of negotiations the UK identified three areas as priorities:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>avoiding an ineffective and bureaucratic process proposed by the Commission involving additional pre-market scrutiny of higher risk devices by a central committee of Member State experts;</li></ul><p> </p><ul><li>ensuring sufficient flexibility is in place to allow health institutions to manufacture and use diagnostic tests developed ‘in-house’; and</li></ul><p> </p><ul><li>resisting proposals to introduce additional regulatory burdens.</li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Under 'Any Other Business' there will also be presentations on three other issues by the following delegations:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Slovenia</strong> - follow-up to the informal meeting of EU Health Ministers on a new framework for the EU alcohol policy;</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta</strong> - importance of the health dimension in the European Agenda on Migration;</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Luxembourg</strong> - priorities for their forthcoming Presidency, which will run from July until December 2015.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>For information, a copy of the latest agenda is attached.</p><p> </p>","house":"Commons","noticeNumber":6,"hasAttachments":true,"hasLinkedStatements":true,"linkedStatements":[{"linkedStatementId":349860,"linkType":"JointStatement","linkDate":"2015-06-11T00:00:00"}],"attachments":[{"url":"https://qna.files.parliament.uk/ws-attachments/349843/original/Health Council June 19 Prov Agenda.pdf","title":"Health Council Provisional Agenda 19th June","fileType":"pdf","fileSizeBytes":38803}]},"links":[{"rel":"self","href":"/Statements/349843","method":"GET"}]}