Human Rights

Cage Beds, Central Europe

ORAL QUESTION H-0776/03
for Question Time at the part-session in December 2003
by John Bowis to the Commission.
Subject: Caged beds.

Is the Commission aware of the continued use of caged beds in four accession countries, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia? This practice involves the locking into caged beds, sometimes for weeks and months at a time, of elderly people with dementia and others of all ages with a mental health or behavioural problem. It is widely seen, both internationally and within the countries concerned, as a human rights abuse and an archaic method of containment and restraint. It is not used in any EU Member States or in any other accession country.

Will the Commission welcome moves in the four countries to review and reduce the use of caged beds and work with them to agree a timetabled phasing out of all such beds?

ANSWER & DEBATE 17 DECEMBER 2003:

Verheugen, Commission. – (DE) May I on this question too make a brief political preliminary remark? I am sometimes slightly surprised that the Commission is asked questions that give the impression that we are responsible for all possible circumstances in the future Member States, as though we had powers in areas where there is definitely no Community competence.

We are dealing here with a question where we do not even know what the situation is in the Member States. All the same, we have been able to do something, because the Copenhagen criteria do apply for the future Member States and the Copenhagen criteria help us to take action in such matters. But then we must always treat them as human rights matters. I had to say that first.

So far as the problem of caged beds is concerned, which you raise in your question, the Mental Disability Advocacy Center, an international organisation for the promotion and protection of the rights of people with mental disabilities, presented a report to the European Parliament on 17 June. You know that, of course. That report points out that caged beds are still used to restrain people with mental disabilities in four accession countries, namely the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. On the strength of that report’s findings, the Commission immediately contacted the countries concerned in order to investigate the present situation precisely and called on the authorities of the countries concerned to inform the Commission of the existing circumstances.

The Commission then received the information requested and it appears that the situation has already improved by comparison with the report simply as a result of the Commission’s enquiry. The Slovenian authorities informed us that caged beds are no longer used in Slovenia. In Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary they are still used in a very few exceptional cases and strict guidelines must be followed. The countries concerned have however conceded that efforts to introduce more modern methods of psychiatric care may for the present be hampered by insufficient staff resources.

The Commission has information that the Slovak Government has taken relevant measures and is at present working on a plan to phase out caged beds. The Czech Government has assured the Commission that it is investigating the matter in detail in order to provide us with more precise information about the occasional use of caged beds. In Hungary the number of caged beds has already fallen steadily. The very few establishments where such beds are used are regularly monitored and ways are being sought that will allow these terrible beds to be abolished.

If I may make a brief assessment, I think we are faced here with a phenomenon that gives us a glimpse into the sometimes horrifying past of psychiatry and that we really must be shocked at what we see. I am sure we all agree that such methods have no place in modern psychiatry. The Commission will therefore be using every means at its disposal to pursue this matter further and we shall not cease until the last caged bed has vanished from each of these countries.

Bowis (PPE-DE). – Mr President, I wholeheartedly welcome the Commissioner's last statement, which is absolutely right. There is no place for caged beds or anything like them in a modern psychiatric service.

I was astonished by his opening political statement. If he does not know, I can tell him that there are no caged beds in any existing Member State. There are no caged beds in any other accession country apart from these four. They are a legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and so the only other country that could have had them in the past was Austria, and that is no longer the case.

I recently spoke at a conference in the senate in Prague when this issue was being debated. One of the speakers was a young man called Michael, a 29-year-old who had been put in one of these caged beds for a week, unable to get out. Not surprisingly his health suffered. They are caged in the sense of there being iron bars or nets. There are safety consequences, because people have died in these beds. As the Commissioner said, it is a human rights issue. That is why it is an accession issue. That is why, when we looked at Slovenia, we incorporated a question about their new mental health legislation in our report of two years ago. That is why I very much welcome the pressure that the Commissioner is putting on these countries. Hungary has already responded; Slovenia is now responding; the Czech Republic not yet; and for Slovakia we wait to see.

Verheugen, Commission. – (DE) Mr Bowis, I am happy to admit that the Commission cannot know everything. Unfortunately there is no acquis that would allow us to gather accurate information from the current Member States. However, I am happy to follow up your comments. What is more, I believe that our assessments coincide. If you receive information about individual or recurring cases of this kind, please do not hesitate to contact me directly and in person. I have no problem picking up the telephone in such cases and contacting the relevant Head of Government himself in order to explain what we expect from him and his country.

As regards the Czech Republic, I had an opportunity to speak to the relevant members of the government just a few days ago in the course of a visit to Prague. I expect an answer from Prague very soon, and that will point the way forward.

McKenna (Verts/ALE). – I agree with Mr Bowis. This is a human rights issue and the European Union has certain possibilities open to it. There are provisions in the Nice Treaty meaning that once these countries are full Member States of the EU, they can be sanctioned. Austria, for example, was sanctioned by the European Union although it did not actually breach human rights: in fact a political party was elected with which most of us could not agree.

So the accession countries have to be warned about the possibility of sanctions being imposed on them if they continue to violate human rights. It will speed up the process of getting rid of this unsatisfactory situation.