The meeting of Health Ministers, which took place on Friday 14 June in Luxembourg, was resolutely forward-looking. In the absence of legislative dossiers on the agenda, the Twenty-Eight mainly discussed the financial instruments at their disposal. The Finnish Minister, Krista Kiuru, outlined the priorities of the future rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU related to health: an economy of well-being.
The 2021-2027 budget in the spotlight
In total, more than half of the European ministers had made the trip. The main item on the agenda was investments to transform and improve health systems. But this exchange quickly turned into a discussion on the European budget in general. Indeed, the European Commission has proposed to set aside €7.7 billion from the Horizon Europe programme and €413 million from the European Social Fund (which absorbs the health programme) for health issues. Not surprisingly, the Netherlands, as the first to speak, opposed any increase in the European budget. “The Netherlands advocates a downward revision of the overall budget in the MFF, with an emphasis on strategic priorities. At the same time, we defend a strong agenda for health research and development... [...] There should be a priority on this in Horizon Europe”, said Minister Bruno Bruins. He added that it is necessary to focus on affordable, quality medicine, antimicrobial resistance and digital health. Hungary immediately expressed its opposition: “A reduction in resources in the MFF of almost 24% for Central and Eastern Europe cannot be accepted”, pointing out that Budapest has so far made very good use of EU funds (one third invested in human capital and 2/3 in health infrastructure).
Overall, most Member States called for greater synergies between the different tools, without detailing how to do so. And Bulgaria, Slovenia and Belgium called for administrative procedures to be simplified to access the funds. Also noteworthy was Germany's intervention, which stated that “on Ebola, the EU had lacked a common position”.
HTA: no settlement announced in the next 6 months
Finland presented its future work programme at the end of the meeting. In all likelihood, Helsinki does not intend to reach a general approach on the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Regulation, the only legislative dossier on the EU Council's table. “There will be a Health Council on 9 December to discuss the health aspects of the welfare economy. We could have a debate on HTA, but it's not safe. We'll see later”, said Finnish Health Minister Krista Kiuru. She also mentioned five meetings held in Helsinki, including a high-level forum on the ‘silver economy’ in July, a high-level meeting on the welfare economy in September, a meeting of health and pharmaceutical representatives in September, and two expert meetings on welfare economics.
Other files
The Health Council was also an opportunity for ministers to discuss the explosion of measles cases in Europe and the difficult implementation of the new rules on medical devices. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)