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EU set to step up healthcare cooperation with Belarus

The European Union plans to step up cooperation with Belarus in the area of healthcare, Anatol Hrushkowski, spokesman for the health ministry, told reporters in Minsk on December 27.

He said that officers of the Minsk-based EU Delegation to Belarus had already approached the health ministry with proposals for more active cooperation next year. They reportedly said that the EU had chosen healthcare in Belarus as a priority area of its international activity in the field of healthcare in 2013.

A delegation of EU experts visited Belarus this past September, drawing up recommendations for healthcare reform in the country, Mr. Hrushkowski said.

The experts also announced that the EU planned to help Belarus introduce a system of non-infectious disease screening and have its pharmaceutical laboratories certified as complying with international standards through two projects that would be implemented in 2014.

Both projects have yet to be approved by the EU member states, according to Mr. Hrushkowski. If they are approved, Belarus will receive EU funding to buy equipment, have its experts trained abroad and hold workshops and training events, he said. //BelaPAN