POLICY
The European Union’s health and consumer policy focuses on issues that are of central importance to all European citizens – their health and safety and the availability of a wide range of food and consumer products in an efficient and secure internal market. EU policies in this area are designed to empower European consumers, to protect and improve the health of European citizens, to ensure that food is safe and wholesome, and to protect the health of plants and the welfare and health of animals.
The Commission has a particular responsibility to help protect and improve the health status and condition of animals in the Community, in particular food-producing animals, while facilitating intra-Community trade and imports of animals and animal products in accordance with the appropriate health standards and international obligations. Similarly, the EU supervises the marketing and use of plant protection products and sets standards to monitor and control pesticide residues. It implements preventative measures to guard against the introduction and spread of organisms harmful to plants or plant products within the EU. It also ensures quality conditions for the sale of seeds and propagating material within the EU. This task is carried out more efficiently and economically through the EU budget than through 27 different national budgets.
Promoting good health is an integral part of the smart and inclusive growth objectives of Europe 2020. Keeping people healthy and active for longer has a positive impact on productivity and competitiveness. Innovation in health care helps take up the challenge of sustainability in the sector in the context of demographic change.
Similarly, consumer policy contributes significantly to the efficiency of the European economy by empowering citizens to play a full role in the single market and strengthening their ability and confidence to buy goods and services cross-border, in particular on-line. With consumer expenditure accounting for 56% of EU GDP, an effective consumer policy can contribute actively to the Europe 2020 objectives.
Programmes funded as part of the EU’s health and consumer policy contribute to the well-being of European citizens. The added-value of EU health and consumer programmes lies in their capacity to tackle issues that could not be addressed as effectively by Member States acting alone. For example, activities to promote cross-border shopping or to respond to major challenges, diseases or pandemics affecting several Member States require a coordinated and coherent response. Similarly, animal and plant diseases do not respect national borders. Ensuring a uniform and high level of animal health and food safety throughout the EU enables the free movement of live animals and animal products, which is essential to the functioning of the single market, benefits consumers through greater choice and increased competition, and allows EU food producers to enjoy economies of scale.

INSTRUMENTS
The Commission proposes the following programmes to support the delivery of EU health and consumer policy.

>Health
Health for Growth Programme
The new Health for Growth programme will be oriented towards actions with clear EU added-value, in line with the Europe 2020 objectives and new legal obligations. The principal aim is to work with Member States to protect citizens from cross-border health threats, to increase the sustainability of health services and to improve the health of the population, whilst encouraging innovation in health. For example, the programme will support health policy by developing best practices and guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases, supporting European reference networks on diseases, developing best practices and guidelines for cancer screening and developing a common EU approach to health technology assessments and e-Health. Research and innovation actions in the area of health will be supported under the Common Strategic Framework for Research and Innovation.

Animal and Plant Health and Food Safety
The Animal and Plant Health and Food Safety programme focuses on the eradication of animal diseases, the emergency veterinary fund and related actions such as the financing of EU reference laboratories, training programmes and vaccine banks. The future programme will continue these activities with a strengthened emphasis on results. The programme will also fund additional and much-needed action to address the plant health pests and diseases which are becoming increasingly prevalent across the EU.

>Consumers
Consumers Programme
The Consumers programme will promote consumer empowerment as a key means to achieve a high level of protection throughout the single market. The programme will focus on improving the information flow to consumers and the representation of consumer interests. It will support the effective application of consumer protection rules, through cooperation between authorities and organisations responsible for their implementation, information, education and dispute resolution. The new programme will build on the positive results of the current programme with some refocusing to address key new priorities. In particular, the Commission proposes to increase the resources dedicated to alternative dispute resolution and to building capacity to advise consumers when shopping cross-border.

IMPLEMENTATION
The health and consumers budget is implemented through direct and indirect centralised management. Most of the food and feed budget is implemented by centralised direct management, notably by means of grants paid to Member State authorities.
In 2004, the Commission set up an Executive Agency for Health and Consumers to manage the Public Health Programme. The mandate of the Agency was enlarged in 2008 to cover the implementation of the Consumers programme and of food safety training measures financed under the food and feed budget. A number of other regulatory agencies are active in this area: the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The CPVO is totally self-financed by fees. The ECDC and EFSA are financed by an annual budgetary subsidy, while EMA receives a budget subsidy together with fees from the private sector. These bodies will be used to implement the new programmes in their areas of expertise.

PROPOSED BUDGET ALLOCATION FOR 2014-2020
All figures in constant 2011 prices
Total proposed budget 2014-2020 €2.75 bn
of which
•Food Safety €2.2 bn
•Health for Growth Programme €396 million
•Consumers Programme €175 million