MaltaMedia.com

Social Policy Minister John Dalli has said that although he expected a gruelling 3-hour public hearing in front of Members of the European Parliament ahead of his appointment as EU Commissioner, the event was in fact a pleasant one and the feedback received afterwards was very positive.

In a briefing with Maltese journalists, John Dalli, who will be EU Commissioner for health and consumer policy, said that the weeks prior to the hearing were spent reading up on the material that MEPs would be testing him on.

However, he admitted that, contrary to expectations, the experience was a pleasant one,. The hearing certainly appeared to go well as MEPs applauded at times, laughed at others, but never heckled. Mr Dalli said that the feedback he received soon afterwards was very positive, although it was now up to MEPs with diverse political leanings to back him.

“The underlying theme of my work will be Patients First, Consumers First”, John Dalli, Commissioner-designate for Health and consumer policy told MEPs during his hearing. He said his vision would be that “European Citizens live a longer and healthier life” and that he wanted “well-informed consumers who can take educated decisions on the goods and services they consume”. Furthermore, a focus on prevention would be necessary to secure sustainability in the health sector.

In discussion, MEPs from the committees on the environment, public health and food safety, on the internal market and consumer protection and on agriculture, questioned Mr Dalli on issues such as patient rights, the pharmaceutical package, legislation on food derived from cloned animals, genetically modified organisms, the proposal on food information for consumers, protection of children and the question of collective redress.

Should he be approved, his first task would be to tackle cross-border healthcare. He also admitted that he would miss Malta and Maltese politics after so many years.

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