P6_TA(2009)0014

Fibromyalgia

Declaration of the on fibromyalgia

The European Parliament,

– having regard to Rule 116 of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas nearly 14 million persons in the and 1 to 3 % of the general population worldwide suffer from fibromyalgia, a debilitating condition resulting in chronic widespread pain,

B. whereas the World Health Organisation has recognised fibromyalgia as a disease since 1992, but it is still not coded in the official index of conditions in the EU, which excludes patients from formal diagnosis,

C. whereas patients with fibromyalgia make more GP visits, have more specialist referrals, are issued more sick notes and receive more in-patient services, and thus generate a considerable economic burden for the EU,

D. whereas people with fibromyalgia struggle to lead full and independent lives, unless they have access to appropriate treatment and support,

1. Calls on the Council and the Commission to:

– develop a Community strategy on fibromyalgia in order to recognise this condition as a disease;

– help raise awareness of the condition and facilitate access to information for health professionals and patients, by supporting EU and national awareness campaigns;

– encourage Member States to improve access to diagnosis and treatment;

– facilitate research on fibromyalgia through the work programmes of the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development and future research programmes;

– facilitate the development of programmes for collecting data on fibromyalgia;

2. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Council, the Commission and the parliaments of the Member States. List of signatories Adamos Adamou, Vincenzo Aita, Jim Allister, Alexander Alvaro, Roberta Alma Anastase, Georgs Andrejevs, Laima Liucija Andrikienė, Emmanouil Angelakas, Stavros Arnaoutakis, Richard James Ashworth, Robert Atkins, Elspeth Attwooll, Margrete Auken, Liam Aylward, Pilar Ayuso, Maria Badia i Cutchet, Paolo Bartolozzi, Katerina Batzeli, Jean Marie Beaupuy, Christopher Beazley, Zsolt László Becsey, , Bastiaan Belder, Ivo Belet, Irena Belohorská, , Slavi Binev, Šarūnas Birutis, Johannes Blokland, Sebastian Valentin Bodu, Herbert Bösch, Victor Boştinaru, Costas Botopoulos, Catherine Boursier, John Bowis, Sharon Bowles, , Mihael Brejc, Frieda Brepoels, , Jan Březina, Danutė Budreikaitė, Kathalijne Maria Buitenweg, Nicodim Bulzesc, , Colm Burke, Philip Bushill-Matthews, Niels Busk, Cristian Silviu Buşoi, Philippe Busquin, Simon Busuttil, Jerzy Buzek, Maddalena Calia, Martin Callanan, Mogens Camre, Marie-Arlette Carlotti, David Casa, Paulo Casaca, Michael Cashman, Pilar del Castillo Vera, , Zdzisław Kazimierz Chmielewski, Ole Christensen, Sylwester Chruszcz, Philip Claeys, Luigi Cocilovo, Carlos Coelho, Richard Corbett, , Giovanna Corda, Jean Louis Cottigny, , Gabriela Creţu, Brian Crowley, Magor Imre Csibi, Marek Aleksander Czarnecki, Ryszard Czarnecki, Daniel Dăianu, Joseph Daul, Dragoş Florin David, Chris Davies, Antonio De Blasio, Bairbre de Brún, Arūnas Degutis, Jean-Luc Dehaene, Véronique De Keyser, Panayiotis Demetriou, Gérard Deprez, Proinsias De Rossa, Marielle De Sarnez, Marie-Hélène Descamps, Albert Deß, Mia De Vits, Jolanta Dičkutė, Gintaras Didžiokas, Koenraad Dillen, Giorgos Dimitrakopoulos, Alexandra Dobolyi, , Avril Doyle, Mojca Drčar Murko, Andrew Duff, Árpád Duka-Zólyomi, Constantin Dumitriu, Lena Ek, Saïd El Khadraoui, James Elles, Edite Estrela, Harald Ettl, Jill Evans, Jonathan Evans, Fernando Fernández Martín, Francesco Ferrari, Anne Ferreira, Elisa Ferreira, Ilda Figueiredo, Petru Filip, Roberto Fiore, Alessandro Foglietta, Hanna Foltyn-Kubicka, Glyn Ford, Carmen Fraga Estévez, Juan Fraile Cantón, Armando França, Monica Frassoni, Duarte Freitas, Urszula Gacek, , Kinga Gál, Milan Gaľa, Vicente Miguel Garcés Ramón, José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil, Elisabetta Gardini, Jean-Paul Gauzès, , Eugenijus Gentvilas, Georgios Georgiou, Lidia Joanna Geringer de Oedenberg, Claire Gibault, Neena Gill, , Bruno Gollnisch, Ana Maria Gomes, Hélène Goudin, Genowefa Grabowska, Dariusz Maciej Grabowski, Ingeborg Gräßle, Martí Grau i Segú, Nathalie Griesbeck, Lissy Gröner, Elly de Groen-Kouwenhoven, Françoise Grossetête, Ignasi Guardans Cambó, Ambroise Guellec, Pedro Guerreiro, Cristina Gutiérrez-Cortines, Fiona Hall, David Hammerstein, Małgorzata Handzlik, Malcolm Harbour, Marian Harkin, , Erna Hennicot-Schoepges, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Edit Herczog, Jim Higgins, Richard Howitt, Ján Hudacký, Ian Hudghton, Stephen Hughes, Alain Hutchinson, Filiz Hakaeva Hyusmenova, Monica Maria Iacob-Ridzi, Sophia in 't Veld, Mikel Irujo Amezaga, Marie Anne Isler Béguin, Caroline Jackson, Lily Jacobs, Mieczysław Edmund Janowski, Lívia Járóka, , Jelko Kacin, Filip Kaczmarek, , Othmar Karas, Sajjad Karim, Ioannis Kasoulides, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann, Metin Kazak, Tunne Kelam, Glenys Kinnock, Timothy Kirkhope, Dieter-Lebrecht Koch, Jaromír Kohlíček, Christoph Konrad, Maria Eleni Koppa, Eija-Riitta Korhola, Rodi Kratsa- Tsagaropoulou, Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler, Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis, Sepp Kusstatscher, , André Laignel, Jean Lambert, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Vytautas Landsbergis, , Raymond Langendries, Romano Maria La Russa, Henrik Lax, Johannes Lebech, Roselyne Lefrançois, Klaus-Heiner Lehne, , Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marcin Libicki, , Kartika Tamara Liotard, Alain Lipietz, Pia Elda Locatelli, Eleonora Lo Curto, Andrea Losco, Patrick Louis, Caroline Lucas, Sarah Ludford, Astrid Lulling, Elizabeth Lynne, Marusya Ivanova Lyubcheva, , Linda McAvan, Arlene McCarthy, Mary Lou McDonald, Mairead McGuinness, Edward McMillan- Scott, Jamila Madeira, Eugenijus Maldeikis, Ramona Nicole Mănescu, Thomas Mann, Marian-Jean Marinescu, Catiuscia Marini, , Sérgio Marques, , David Martin, Miguel Angel Martínez Martínez, Antonio Masip Hidalgo, Véronique Mathieu, Marios Matsakis, Maria Matsouka, Manolis Mavrommatis, , Emilio Menéndez del Valle, Rosa Miguélez Ramos, Miroslav Mikolášik, Gay Mitchell, Eluned Morgan, Luisa Morgantini, Philippe Morillon, , Cristiana Muscardini, Juan Andrés Naranjo Escobar, Michael Henry Nattrass, Cătălin-Ioan Nechifor, Bill Newton Dunn, James Nicholson, null Nicholson of Winterbourne, Rareş-Lucian Niculescu, , , Péter Olajos, Jan Olbrycht, Seán Ó Neachtain, Gérard Onesta, Ria Oomen-Ruijten, Dumitru Oprea, Josu Ortuondo Larrea, Miroslav Ouzký, Siiri Oviir, Reino Paasilinna, Maria Grazia Pagano, Justas Vincas Paleckis, Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, Vladko Todorov Panayotov, Pier Antonio Panzeri, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, Georgios Papastamkos, Neil Parish, Ioan Mircea Paşcu, Aldo Patriciello, Alojz Peterle, Maria Petre, Tobias Pflüger, João de Deus Pinheiro, Hubert Pirker, Francisca Pleguezuelos Aguilar, Zita Pleštinská, Rovana Plumb, Guido Podestà, José Javier Pomés Ruiz, Mihaela Popa, Nicolae Vlad Popa, Miguel Portas, , , Christa Prets, Vittorio Prodi, John Purvis, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Vladimír Remek, Karin Resetarits, José Ribeiro e Castro, Teresa Riera Madurell, Frédérique Ries, Karin Riis-Jørgensen, Marco Rizzo, Bogusław Rogalski, Zuzana Roithová, Luca Romagnoli, Raül Romeva i Rueda, Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, Libor Rouček, Paul Rübig, Heide Rühle, Flaviu Călin Rus, Leopold Józef Rutowicz, Eoin Ryan, Aloyzas Sakalas, José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra, María Isabel Salinas García, Antolín Sánchez Presedo, Daciana Octavia Sârbu, Toomas Savi, Christel Schaldemose, Agnes Schierhuber, Carl Schlyter, Olle Schmidt, Pál Schmitt, György Schöpflin, Jürgen Schröder, , Adrian Severin, Brian Simpson, Kathy Sinnott, Peter Skinner, Alyn Smith, Csaba Sógor, , Søren Bo Søndergaard, María Sornosa Martínez, Jean Spautz, Bart Staes, Grażyna Staniszewska, Petya Stavreva, Dirk Sterckx, Struan Stevenson, Catherine Stihler, Theodor Dumitru Stolojan, Dimitar Stoyanov, Daniel Strož, Robert Sturdy, Margie Sudre, David Sumberg, László Surján, Gianluca Susta, Eva-Britt Svensson, József Szájer, István Szent-Iványi, Hannu Takkula, Charles Tannock, Michel Teychenné, Britta Thomsen, Marianne Thyssen, Silvia-Adriana Ţicău, Gary Titley, Patrizia Toia, László Tőkés, Ewa Tomaszewska, Witold Tomczak, Jacques Toubon, Antonios Trakatellis, Catherine Trautmann, Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, Evangelia Tzampazi, , Adina-Ioana Vălean, Johan Van Hecke, Anne Van Lancker, Geoffrey Van Orden, Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna, Ioannis Varvitsiotis, Donato Tommaso Veraldi, Bernadette Vergnaud, Marcello Vernola, , , Diana Wallis, Graham Watson, Henri Weber, , Renate Weber, , , Anders Wijkman, Glenis Willmott, Iuliu Winkler, Janusz Wojciechowski, Corien Wortmann-Kool, Anna Záborská, Zbigniew Zaleski, Mauro Zani, Andrzej Tomasz Zapałowski, Stefano Zappalà, Tatjana Ždanoka, Vladimír Železný, Roberts Zīle, Marian Zlotea, Jaroslav Zvěřina, Tadeusz Zwiefka