The European Parliament adopted a resolution requesting tighter controls on the use of antimicrobials – such as antibiotics. The resolution is non-binding on the EU and its Member States but gives a strong signal on what the European Parliament expects on the issue.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution requesting tighter controls on the use of antimicrobials – such as antibiotics. The resolution is non-binding on the EU and its Member States but gives a strong signal on what the European Parliament expects on the issue.
In its resolution, the European Parliament calls for information to the public to be improved, for incentives for pharmaceutical research (pharmaceutical companies have produced very few new antibiotics for decades).
Interestingly, MEPs take a holistic approach to the issue, looking at agricultural and veterinaty use or antibiotics. They want to ban the pre-emptive prophylactic use of antibiotics for animals, so that risks of resistance transfered between animals and humans are limited. They also call to restrict agriculture use of ‘last resort’ antibiotics.
Next steps:
The European Commission is about to propose a a five-year action plan in November to address the issues.
