EU faces tough decisions after budget cuts

The European Union is facing some tough financial and policy options on its public health policy. After lengthy negotiations, EU governments and the European parliament finally decided on 5 April to allocate some €780m (£542m; $945m) to cover the union's entire public health and consumer protection policies between 2007 and the end of 2013.

This is well below the €1.2bn which the European Commission had originally sought for both policies, and is considerably less than the €969m that it wanted to allocate to health alone.

The institution will have to assess the different projects …