To address these challenges, the Commission has tabled a package, consisting of four key parts: 1. A communication to launch reflections on ways to improve market access and to develop initiatives to boost EU pharmaceutical research. 2. A proposal to tackle the growing issues of counterfeiting and illegal distribution of medicines, 3. Proposals to enable citizens to have access to high-quality information on prescription-only medicines and 4. Proposals to improve patient protection by strengthening the EU system for the safety monitor ...[+++]ing ('pharmacovigilance') of medicines.

1. Welcomes the Commission proposal for a European Security Research Programme (ESRP); stresses the need to develop a structured and efficient security research programme at Union level, in order to address current and future security challenges and clearly-defined European requirements, to enhance the security and safety of European citizens and to ensure European credibility and effectiveness in ESDP operations, while contributing to the growth and competitiveness of the European economy;

to pursue actions on a Community scale as well as on a global scale, taking into account the existing international legal framework as well as international trade rules, and the adoption of appropriate legal instruments, to address residual uses of mercury in the Community, for example in dental amalgam and vaccines, to develop viable techniques for a further reduction of mercury emissions from the combustion of fuels and to replace the use of mercury in gold mining, to address the safe storage or disposal of mercury from the chlor-alkali industry, to implement best available techniques inter alia in line with the IPPC Directive, for further reduction of mercury emissions from combustion processes, to ...[+++]share with actors inside and outside the Community the common vision of the strategy, its principles, goals and related objectives and to actively participate in its further development and to share the responsibility for its implementation, taking also voluntary initiatives from industry into account, to ensure transparency and openness that has characterised the process up until now, to recognise the importance of public awareness, communication and education for the further implementation of the strategy, to achieve ownership and long-term political commitment by all stakeholders for the goals and objectives of the strategy, to address priorities on mercury research and technology, to support countries with economies in transition and developing countries with a high dependency on solid fuels, like coal, in promoting the clean and efficient use of fuels;

– (IT) Commissioner, you rightly – in my opinion – placed great emphasis in your speech on the problem represented by the ageing population, both for the three countries in question and all the other European countries as well, and you touched upon the need to tackle the issue of the ageing population and therefore the question of the pension deficit, which is an unknown quantity weighing heavily upon the public finances of the European countries, hindering recovery, and it will do so increasingly in the future.

– (IT) Commissioner, you rightly – in my opinion – placed great emphasis in your speech on the problem represented by the ageing population, both for the three countries in question and all the other European countries as well, and you touched upon the need to tackle the issue of the ageing population and therefore the question of the pension deficit, which is an unknown quantity weighing heavily upon the public finances of the European countries, hindering recovery, and it will do so increasingly in the future.

David Byrne underlined the need for high quality food safety research: "Food safety research is absolutely crucial if we are to develop the technological means to address known and unknown safety concerns.