Stockholm - Measures to combat alcohol-related problems in the European Union and swine flu were on the agenda when Sweden Monday hosted its first informal ministerial meeting since taking over the EU helm last week. Swedish Crown Princess Victoria joined delegates meeting in Jonkoping, 330 kilometres south-west of Stockholm.
Other topics during the two-day parley of health and social affairs ministers and other officials including European Health Commissioner Androula Vassiliou included how patients can seek treatment in other EU countries.
Sweden's Health and Social Affairs Minister Goran Hagglund told the Svenska Dagbladet daily he wanted to see alcohol prices shadow the general price index in Sweden, as part of measures to reduce drinking.
The state alcohol retail monopoly Systembolaget scrapped the index system when Sweden joined the EU in 1995. Hagglund's remarks were received coolly by the association of Swedish breweries.
Raising awareness of the growing problem of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics was also on the agenda. The Swedish EU presidency has stated it hopes to discuss possible incentives to promote more research on antibiotics.
"We have a huge problem in front of us if we can't use the antibiotics," Hagglund said in the run-up to the meeting.
Hagglund co-hosted the meeting with his cabinet colleague, Maria Larsson, minister for elderly care and public health. Larsson last week attended a summit on swine flu in Mexico.
The informal meeting is the first such gathering to take place in Sweden since it on July 1 assumed the rotating presidency of the 27- member bloc.
Both Hagglund, leader of the Christian Democrats that is part of the ruling centre-right coalition, and Larsson hail from the province of Smaland where Jonkoping is the largest city.
