The European Parliament has announced an investigation into the way the European Union reacted to last year's outbreak of the A(H1N1) virus. The virus is known as Mexican flu in the Netherlands and swine flu elsewhere.

The parliament wants to find out whether governments panicked in their reactions, and whether or not they also allowed the pharmaceutical industry to exert undue pressure on them.

Judith Merkies, a Euro MP from the Dutch Labour Party, said that over the last two or three years there had been regular waves of panic about health problems. She cited last year's A(H1N1) outbreak and, before that, the fears of a SARS epidemic.

She said that when such viruses surface, the pharmaceutical industry increases pressure on countries to order vaccines "before it is too late". She added that the Netherlands currently "has a surplus of 19 million vaccines for which we paid 300 million euros and which we might as well throw away".

She hopes the parliamentary investigation will result in a plan that leads to the EU reacting to future epidemics more calmly.