The European Commission has unveiled plans to pour €18 million into research projects on influenza. The news comes as MEPs from across the political spectrum call for a European Parliament inquiry into the handling of the H1N1 flu pandemic.

The EU executive has shortlisted four collaborative projects for funding. These involve 52 research institutes and SMEs from 18 European countries and three international partners – Israel, China and the US.

This latest series of projects bring the total Commission funding for flu research to over €100 million since 2001.
Two consortia will focus their research on influenza in pigs while the two others will develop innovative drugs against influenza in humans.

A new European surveillance network for influenza in pigs aims to increase knowledge of the epidemiology and evolution of the swine flu virus in European pigs.

Meanwhile, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are demanding an inquiry into how European public health authorities handled the flu pandemic. In a statement, the parliamentarians said the credibility of the EU institutions had been undermined in the wake of the outbreak.

"The inadequate appraisal of risk in view of the data available and the marketing authorisations granted to various pandemic vaccines, which the European public health authorities declared safe without proper prior investigation, force us, as members of the European Parliament, to ask a number of questions," they said.
Speaking in Strasbourg, they said the public and media were not provided with "good objective, up-to-date communication" when scientific data suggested the flu pandemic was not as potent as first feared.
"Is there any justification for the allegations that certain experts within the European public health authorities had undeclared conflicts of interest?" said the cross-party group of MEPs.

Any action taken by the European Parliament should not seek to "name and shame," said French Green MEP Michele Rivasi, who wants a parliamentary committee to probe the EU's response to the flu pandemic.

The inquiry would shed light on the precise timeline of events, the decision-making process and the manner in which expert opinion was sought and EU recommendations on the pandemic were made, the MEPs added.