Text tabled : A7-0366/2010

  Nathalie Griesbeck (ALDE), in writing. – (FR) It is estimated that almost 10 million people in Europe suffer from dementia, and the majority of them from Alzheimer’s disease. This figure is likely to double virtually every 20 years. One in four people over the age of 65 could be affected in 2020. In France, there are 160 000 new sufferers each year. We can therefore say that all Europeans will, at one time or another, be directly or indirectly confronted with problems linked to Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias. Hence, I gave my full backing to this own-initiative report, which calls on the European Commission to make the fight against Alzheimer’s disease one of Europe’s priorities for action in the field of health. It is crucial to ensure that Alzheimer’s sufferers have access to appropriate healthcare and, above all, we need closer European cooperation in the fields of research (within the context of the next research framework programme), prevention, diagnosis (with common criteria, common protocols and so on) and treatment. We also call for the launch of a European Year of Mental Health, to complement World Alzheimer’s Day, which I hope will provide an opportunity to further raise awareness of this issue.