In view of the lack of equipment to combat the coronavirus in the European Union, the European Commission proposed on Thursday 19 March the creation of a strategic reserve of medical equipment within the framework of the EU’s reinforced civil protection mechanism RescEU.
This measure will come into force on Friday 20 March. Several countries have already indicated that they will contribute to this reserve on a voluntary basis.
The stock will include medical equipment for intensive care, such as respirators; and personal protective equipment, such as reusable masks, vaccines, medicines and laboratory equipment.
“We are in the process of building up an EU stockpile to quickly obtain the equipment needed to fight the coronavirus. It will be used to support Member States facing shortages of equipment needed to treat infected patients, protect medical workers and help slow the spread of the virus. We will move forward without delay”, said EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarčič.
The Commissioner acknowledged that “all countries” had been “taken by surprise” by the coronavirus pandemic, and felt that lessons should be learned. That is what this new measure of solidarity is all about.
The equipment will go to those who need it most. The stock will be hosted by one or more Member States. The host State will be responsible for the acquisition of the equipment. The Commission will finance 90% of the cost of storage.
“Several volunteer Member States are ready to play this role”, the Commissioner said.
Germany’s abstention from creating this reserve is not on the substance, but only on the procedure, as Germany wants to participate in the RescEU mechanism, he said, recalling that Germany has provided 1 million masks to Italy, which, like Spain, has activated the EU’s civil protection mechanism.
While Member States already have insufficient access to the necessary equipment, this will not impinge on other needs, but will complement efforts to jointly purchase protective equipment, testing kits and respirators.
“The idea is to take complementary measures, not to replace these initiatives”, according to Mr Lenarčič.
The allocation of equipment will depend on the assessment of needs, the situation in the requesting country and the total number of applications to the Civil Protection Mechanism.
Favour returned from China. China will supply the EU with 2 million surgical masks, 200,000 N95 masks and 50,000 screening test kits.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced this on Wednesday 18 March following her meeting with the Chinese Prime Minister, Li Keqiang: “In January, when China was the epicentre of the epidemic, the European Union helped China by donating 50 tonnes of equipment. China hasn’t forgotten that. Today, we are grateful for China’s support. We need each other’s support when we need it”, she said on her Twitter account.
Drug availability and treatment research. The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) wants to reassure people about the impact of the pandemic on the availability of non-generic medicines. According to the organisation, no shortages are expected in the short term.
“Although supply and demand varies by product, EFPIA members are not aware of any significant short-term impact [of the pandemic] on the availability of our medicines and vaccines”, the organisation said in a release.
In the longer term, EFPIA members do not foresee, at this stage, any negative impact on their supply chains unless the health crisis lasts several months. “Researchers from all our member companies will continue their search for diagnostics, vaccines and treatments to address the crisis”, the organisation said.
The WHO, for its part, announced on 18 March that it had launched a treatment research project called ‘Solidarity’ to avoid “several small trials with different methodologies”. France and Spain are participating in this initiative. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang with Sophie Petitjean)