Declaration of the European Parliament of 13 September 2012 on tackling multiple sclerosis in Europe
The European Parliament,
– having regard to Rule 123 of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas approximately 600 000 Europeans suffer from multiple sclerosis (MS), which is the most common neurodegenerative disorder and is a major cause of non-traumatic disability in young adults;
B. whereas most people with MS are diagnosed in the prime of their working lives, and almost half leave the workforce within three years of diagnosis;
C. whereas in Europe tremendous discrepancies in access to disease-modifying treatments and quality of care exist, and have worsened in recent months;
1. Calls on the Commission and Council to:
–
encourage, within the framework of Horizon 2020, closer scientific collaboration and comparative research on MS;
–
promote, in their Reflection Process on Chronic Disease, equal access to treatment and flexible employment policies for people with chronic neurological disorders such as MS;
2. Calls on the Member States to:
–
enhance equal access to quality care, for example. by using certified educational training tools (such as ’MS Nurse Professional’) to develop, standardise and benchmark specialist nursing staff training;
–
support the European Register for MS by encouraging patient data collection at national level;
3. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories(1), to the Council, the Commission and the Parliaments of the Member States.