Thank you very much, Madame Gillot, for the invitation to join you all today. WHO and the European Union are natural collaborators in the field of health, and I am very pleased with the way our cooperation has developed over the past two years. The cooperation is expressed through EU Member States links with WHO’s European Regional Office and our Headquarters in Geneva. In addition, WHO’s collaboration with the European Commission will today be enhanced through the signing, later today, of an exchange of letters. This builds on a very open and positive dialogue between us - on the new policy framework for action on major communicable diseases, and in the fields of tobacco control, environmental health and food safety.

The exchange of letters will enable us to establish a broad and systematic collaboration on a wide range of issues. It provides for annual meetings at the political and technical levels in order to take stock of the existing cooperation, review priorities and build plans for the future.

The economic and social consequences of ill health are becoming more evident at all levels of political dialogue. Societies expect their governments to address an increasing number of important health issues. WHO is responding to requests from its member states to help them take action to improve their people’s health. For us this means concerted efforts in four directions.

I shall focus on some of the emerging priorities.

Over the past year, we have seen the new attention given to diseases that cause and perpetuate poverty.

Heads of State and Health Ministers of the world's developing nations have told us about how illness hampers their people's prospects for development.

In Abuja at the African Roll Back Malaria Summit during May. In Amsterdam in March, where the focus was on stopping TB. In Durban, in July, at the International Conference on AIDS. In Lomé, at the OAU Heads of State Summit, calling for action on AIDS and malaria. At the UN Security Council and the General Assembly Special Session on Social Development. At the Millennium Summit, these leaders were calling for action for health, with a particular emphasis on the impact of HIV infection.

Heads of State have agreed on targets to drastically cut the burden of disease caused by HIV infection, malaria and tuberculosis, adding to existing goals for children's health and safer motherhood.

The European Commission and the Member States of the European Union have now developed a clear strategy to help ensure the goals are achieved. WHO and the rest of the UN system are looking at new ways of working so that efforts are scaled up quickly and then yield tangible results within the next decade. G8 leaders will increase their commitment, within the framework of a new partnership for health.

Last week in Okinawa I saw this process move ahead. I sensed a unity of purpose and an acceptance of the need for scaled-up resources, for taking proven interventions up to scale where they really are effective, and for ensuring that public goods in the form of essential drugs and vaccines reach those who need them. I sensed that there is a shared understanding that this means new ways of working: finding new mechanisms for funding and delivering interventions; taking novel paths in pricing, distribution and financing pharmaceuticals and being innovative in reducing risks and bridging financing gaps for development of new needed drugs and vaccines.

I am very encouraged by the new coherence towards health and poverty issues that has emerged among the different European Commissioners, seeking a closer link between trading practices of the research-based pharmaceutical industry and the health needs of poor communities. Commissioners are particularly interested in the prospects for differential pricing of key medications and commodities that are on-patent. Examples include new and effective treatment for chloroquine resistant malaria, treatment for multi-drug resistant TB, and antiretroviral therapies, as well as diagnostic kits for HIV, insecticide treated mosquito-nets and condoms that work for women. With support through Member States of the European Union, the Commission's work signals that Europe will play a pivotal role in improving access to essential medicines. This is particularly relevant to countries of Central and Eastern Europe: we know that several key medications, including anti-retrovirals, are more expensive there than in Western Europe.

With regard to reducing risks to human health, we recognise that non-communicable diseases have long dominated the health agendas for European countries, and these diseases will increasingly take a dominant position in developing nations as well. Countries’ tell us of the need to establish public policies that promote health and reduce non-communicable diseases, injuries and mental illness.

This has led WHO to reinvigorate our work and revise our strategies in these areas. As you know, next year’s World Health Day as well as next year’s World Health Report will focus on mental health.

Central in our work to reduce the future burden of ill health is the promotion of national and international policies which reduce the use of tobacco. This is a truly global issue that ties industrialized and developing countries, tropic and temperate, north and south together. The European Union possesses a wealth of experience in tobacco control. We need to draw on this experience and your support in the ongoing work on the International Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The quest for more effective and efficient health systems is not easy. That is why we have developed an approach to assessing health system performance. It is not perfect, and we will work, with countries, to refine it and increase its utility.

This need for surveillance and response is also an issue for the European Union as plans for enlargement of the Union progress. The separation between domestic and international health problems is losing its usefulness as people and goods travel across borders. Let us not succumb to inaction or half measures based on political considerations such as pressure from specific interest groups. The health of all people must be our primary concern.

This means that we must continue to reduce vulnerability to HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, as well as new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and other food-borne infections, through the careful application of effective interventions selected on the basis of up-to-date evidence.

The spread of TB and HIV/AIDS is also a reminder of the increasing importance of the International Health Regulations, which currently is the only binding international health legislation. Although its importance is growing, its present version dates back to 1969. WHO is involved in a revision of this important tool. We need to continue working with European states as we are completing this vital task.