US embassy cable - 05GENEVA2471

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GENEVA 002471 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR IO/T 
PASS TO HHS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AORC, PREL, EAID, SOCI, WHO 
SUBJECT: WHO: FIFTY-FIFTH MEETING OF THE REGIONAL COMMITTEE 
FOR EUROPE 
 
1.  Summary.  The 52-member WHO Regional Committee for Europe 
(EURO) met from September 12-15, 2005, in Bucharest, Romania. 
 WHO Director-General J.W. Lee participated in the opening 
session.  In his remarks he focused on avian influenza, 
universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment, recalling the G8 
goal, polio eradication, chronic diseases, violence, and the 
International Health Regulations.  In an embarrassing gaffe 
Lee recalled the World Health Assembly's recognition of the 
negative impact on health of free trade agreements when in 
fact the Assembly had done no such thing. The Committee 
adopted nine resolutions on such issues as promoting better 
health for children and adolescents, including the European 
Strategy for Child and Adolescent Health, reducing the harm 
done by injuries and violence, increased preparedness for 
health emergencies, and fighting obesity and harmful use of 
alcohol.  The Committee selected Denmark, Slovenia, Turkey 
and Latvia to serve on the WHO Executive Board beginning in 
May 2006.  The Regional Committee will meet next in 
Copenhagen on 17-20 September 2006. End summary. 
 
2.  Report of the Director-General:  Dr. J.W. Lee, who spent 
only the opening session at the Committee, began his remarks 
by informing Committee members that the new International 
Finance Facility for Immunization (IFFIm) had been launched 
on September 9.  The facility is designed to increase the 
number of children who could be protected by vaccination. 
Lee also stressed the importance of emergency preparedness 
and response, citing outbreaks of avian influenza in 
Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, and the need to 
prepare for an influenza pandemic.  The Director-General 
asserted that universal access to treatment was the main goal 
of WHO's efforts to combat disease, particularly HIV/AIDS and 
tuberculosis.  He also stressed the need to focus on chronic 
diseases, citing the problems of drug and alcohol abuse by 
adolescents, particularly binge drinking.  Noting the need to 
bring those outside the conventional health sector into the 
health debate, Lee said patent issues have brought public 
health concerns directly into international trade 
negotiations.  He then stated the World Health Assembly this 
year had recognized the danger of bilateral free trade 
agreements in restricting flexibility in the health sector. 
The WHO legal adviser later confirmed to USDel that the 
Health Assembly had taken no such decision and attributed 
this error to "over reaching" by the speech writers. 
 
3.  Report of the Regional Director:  Dr. Marc Danzon began 
his address by identifying three guides for the work of the 
Regional Office: the program of work for 2004-2005, his 
vision for developing the Office into a modern, more credible 
and adaptable organization, and the strategy for matching 
services to countries' needs.  As examples, he cited 
coordinating the European response to the tsunami in Asia in 
2004; working with UNAIDS to increase access to HIV/AIDS 
treatment in the region; sponsoring conferences on mental 
health, the environment, immunizations, and obesity; closer 
partnerships with the European Commission, the World Bank, 
and UN organizations such as UNICEF; and cooperation with the 
European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. 
 
4.  Invited speaker:  The European Commissioner for Health 
and Consumer Protection, Markos Kyprianou, said his 
participation in the Committee meeting signaled the EC's 
commitment to closer cooperation with the Regional Office and 
WHO as a whole.  He suggested such cooperation would enable 
the EU and WHO to overcome the problem of decreasing 
resources and win wider political support for their shared 
agenda.  He stressed investing in preventing disease and 
tackling lifestyle problems such as tobacco, obesity and 
alcohol. 
 
5.  European Strategy for Child and Adolescent Health: The 
Regional Committee adopted this  strategy to increase efforts 
to reach the goal of enabling children and adolescents to 
reach their full potential for health and development and to 
reduce the burden of avoidable disease and mortality.  The 
strategy follows four principles:  a life-course approach 
that considers the full course of prenatal life to 
adolescence; putting the needs of the most disadvantaged at 
the top of the agenda to ensure equity; working through 
intersectoral action; and facilitating public and youth 
participation.  Priority areas in the strategy include 
HIV/AIDS, obesity, violence and injuries, measles and 
rubella, and mental health. 
 
6.  Framework for alcohol policy in the WHO European Region: 
The Regional Committee endorsed this Framework, which 
provides policy options for Member States to use in 
formulating national alcohol policies and national alcohol 
action plans.  The resolution on alcohol adopted by the World 
Health Assembly in May (WHA 58.26) provided the impetus for 
developing the European Framework, and several delegations 
were successful in aligning the resolution accompanying the 
Framework with that of the Health Assembly - specifically, to 
emphasize public health problems resulting from harmful use 
of alcohol.  Similar attempts, particularly by the U.K., to 
emphasize cooperation with the alcohol industry were not 
successful, although the EURO Secretariat provided assurances 
that its work was in consultation with the industry.  WHO 
Assistant Director-General for Noncommunicable Diseases and 
Mental Health LeGales-Camus also stressed the need to 
coordinate with industry. 
 
7.  Interventions on alcohol stressed the need to reflect 
public health interests in all international agreements 
related to alcohol, such as those on trade and taxation; to 
call for age limits on the purchasers of alcohol; and to 
restrict alcohol advertising, particularly on the Internet. 
The German intervention included a directive to the 
Secretariat to "lay off industry" and suggested the 
 
SIPDIS 
resolution's call for a legal database in the European 
Alcohol Information System was likely to be an expensive 
undertaking with few results.  In a bizarre intervention, the 
WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr. 
Hussein Gezairy (Saudi Arabia), suggested that alcohol not be 
allowed on WHO premises nor served at WHO social events.  He 
also called for the negotiation of a framework convention on 
alcohol and a report by the World Bank on the economics of 
the alcohol trade.  There was no indication that members of 
the Regional Committee welcomed these proposals.  The EURO 
Regional Director told USDel he had invited Gezairy to the 
meeting because he needs his help in dealing with 
Israeli-Palestinian issues.  Israel is a member of the WHO 
European region. 
 
8.  Avian and pandemic influenza:  Although not on the 
Regional Committee's agenda, the WHO headquarters and 
regional office secretariats presented a technical briefing 
on avian and pandemic influenza, focusing on the current 
situation in South-east Asia, WHO's plans to respond to the 
avian influenza pandemic threat, the problems associated with 
risk assessments, and anti-viral stockpiling issues.  There 
was also a discussion of upcoming meetings, including the 
U.S. IPAPI initiative, EU meetings, and the planned WHO 
donors meeting on pandemic preparedness.  This discussion led 
the French delegation to criticize the "pandemic of meetings." 
 
9.  WHO Executive Board:  The Regional Committee selected 
Denmark, Slovenia, Turkey and Latvia to represent the region 
on the WHO Executive Board beginning in May 2006.  The 
European region (as well as the Western Pacific region) 
gained an additional seat on the Board when amendments to 
Articles 24 and 25 of the WHO Constitution went into effect. 
 
10.  Next meeting: The fifty-sixth session of the Regional 
Committee will meet at the Regional Office in Copenhagen from 
11-14 September 2006. 
 
Cassel