Concrete action for the fight against antibiotic resistances needed / Ambitious climate policy with regards to energy intensive industries

Dr. Peter Liese (CDU) was unanimously elected as coordinator for environment, public health and food safety by his colleagues of the biggest group in the European Parliament (EPP-Christian Democrats). The committee has been working on the most co-decision files in the European Parliament.

 

Liese considers the fight against antibiotic resistances one of the biggest challenges in the next five years: "According to data from the World Health Organization, annually 25,000 Europeans die due to germs that cannot be cured by conventional antibiotics. This is a ticking time bomb that needs to be defused immediately," said the medical doctor. According to Liese the main problem is in human medicine, for example in the uncritical application of antibiotics to patients and in hospital hygiene. "In this sector Europe cannot regulate everything due to the principle of subsidiarity. But we can contribute in promoting best practice. We can also contribute to clarification when we improve for example the wording on the package leaflet. The EU has direct competences in veterinary medicine and even when only the smaller part of the cases have its cause here we have to do something about it", Liese continued. Another important point is the fight against cancer. "Unfortunately the number of cancer patients has been increasing for many years and we need to act urgently. We need better prevention and more European cooperation in research to develop the best possible therapies", the health expert of the EPP said.

In the field of environmental policy Liese aims for ambitious targets with a special treatment of legitimate interests of energy intensive industries. “One of our main challenges is the adoption of an ambitious climate agreement in Paris 2015. The EU has to play a leading role in the negotiations. We have to invest more in energy efficiency to lower our dependency from fossil energy. Currently every single day the EU spends about 1 Billion Euros for the import of fossil energy. Most of the money goes straight to Russia – one more reason to keep it in the European economy,” Liese concluded.