THE WEEK THAT WAS... (May 21, 2013)

Everybody knows, in the European Union unemployment has exploded and the economic outlook remains bleak.

Though another dramatic and inhuman effect of the crisis is less known: the debt crisis has forced some governments to drastically cut their public health budgets and millions of EU citizens, especially in the poor memberstates, can’t afford their medicines anymore. During an event in the European Parliament last week, Spanish Socialist MEP Alejandro Cercas told the audience that millions don’t get proper lifesaving medical treatment in the EU. ‘More fiscal solidarity in the Union has not leaded to more general solidarity in the Union’, he stated.

In Ireland, medicines sometimes cost up to four times more than in other member states, even though the country is home to many pharmaceutical companies, Irish Liberal MEP Marian Harkin said. In the most corrupt member state Romania the government decided to close 67 hospitals and some medicines, common in other EU countries, are simply not available, according to Socialist MEP Minadora Cliveti. Greek Green MEP Nikos Chrysogelos spoke about a collapsing health care system in Greece. ‘More than a million people don’t have access to treatment and the rising unemployment also has taken its toll on healthcare’.

David Hammerstein, senior advisor for the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue, suggested that member states could buy medicines together. ‘It is against the rules of the single market, but maybe we should change the rules. We are talking about lifesaving medicines for people who don’t get treatment’.

But, the EU has saved the banks! And military expenditure seems untouched by the reforms prescribed by the European Commission. Hard hit Greece for instance had to reduce labour costs and healthcare expenditure but still spends nearly 3% of its GDP on the military, compared to 1.7% for all European NATO members…