On Thursday 28 May, the European Commission officially presented the details of its new health programme called EU4Health (see EUROPE 12494/5). On this occasion, Vice-President Margaritis Schinas and Commissioner Stella Kyriakides stressed that they were working on a “constant treaty”, not ruling out a review of this approach in the future.
“The new EU4Health programme will be a game changer, a paradigm shift and a response to citizens' demands for health to be a priority,” said Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
A pretty ambitious envelope?
With a budget of €9.4 billion, the programme represents a 2,000% increase in the funds currently dedicated to health, she said. Will that be enough to meet the needs? In response to this question, Vice-President Schinas stated that EU4Health would not be the only budget envelope, also citing the structural funds, the cohesion funds and Horizon Europe. He also added that this money would be allocated according to the priorities, needs and objectives of each Member State. “There is no pre-allocation between Member States. An annual programme will be developed and discussed with the States,” Kyriakides continued.
Strengthening EU agencies
The two Commissioners also highlighted their intention to strengthen the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). On the other hand, they ruled out the possibility of creating a senior research and development authority like the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in the United States, which has invested heavily in research for a vaccine against Covid-19.
“We, as the Commission, as the EU, do have financial instruments and means, not only to support the most mature projects of vaccine development (with the Horizon 2020 resources). We also have the capacity to buy vaccines when the moment comes, through the emergency support instrument (and therefore independently of EU4Health), to make sure that everybody has equitable and affordable access to it ", Schinas replied.
Treaty change?
Asked about the Franco-German proposals, the two Commission representatives expressed their support for a genuine "Europe of Health", which they felt should be discussed at the Conference on the Future of Europe. “The lessons of the crisis will be discussed at this conference and health will be among the first items on the agenda. It is premature to talk about treaty change. It is up to political leaders, not us, to venture into this,” Schinas said.
On the specific issue of the lack of harmonisation criteria at epidemiological level, which is so problematic for the EU to account for its cases and allow comparisons between countries, Commissioner Kyriakides noted, without much conviction, that the Commission had already published several sets of guidelines, based on the ECDC's assessments. But “strengthening data monitoring and collection is one of the big lessons we need to learn,” she continued. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)