HEALTH/WTO: WTO CHIEF APPEALS FOR NEW RELATIONSHIP WITH EU.

The head of the Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO), Gro Harlem Brundtland, visited Brussels on January 7 to meet European Commission officials and to sign a new accord with the Belgian government extending the present agreement as its host for the EU office. More significantly though, Mrs Brundtland appealed to the European Commissioner covering Health, Padraig Flyn, to increase the level of co-operation between WHO and the EU quoting from Article 129 of the Amsterdam Treaty which calls upon the EU to do more for public health. The original agreement signed in 1982 needed to be strengthened, the WHO said, particularly with the new wave of...