While it refuses to talk about “failures”, the European Court of Auditors highlights, in a report published on Monday 18 January, a series of “difficulties” that arose at European level during the Covid-19 crisis in the first half of 2020, including the use of joint procurement framework contracts and the lack of resources from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
However, the EU institution stresses that it is too early to draw conclusions and make recommendations. Moreover, it specifies that its report - which covers the actions carried out between 3 January and 30 June 2020 - is not an audit report, but an analysis document based on public information or on information collected specifically for this purpose. However, the Court is expected to publish a full audit report this year.
The EU is limited in its jurisdiction
Joëlle Elvinger, Member of the Court and in charge of the analysis document, insisted on the fact that “it has been difficult for the EU to supplement the measures taken without overstepping its official mandate and to support the response to the Covid-19 crisis in the field of public health” knowing that the European Treaty essentially confers a supporting role on the Union in the field of public health. A role that may be questioned in the framework of the future Conference on the Future of Europe (see other news), as the European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, has repeatedly claimed.
Overall, the Court notes that the EU has provided suitable forums for the exchange of information and coordination of actions. However, it does highlight the ECDC’s difficulties in managing the “timeliness, quality and completeness” of the data received from Member States.
The director of the ECDC has repeatedly stressed to MEPs the need to use innovative digital solutions, especially for the monitoring aspect, and to strengthen the European centre, which currently devotes almost all its scientific staff to the pandemic at the expense of other activities.
Joint purchasing of equipment
In other respects, one of the main observations of the auditors relates to the limited purchases of personal protective equipment (PPE) at EU level.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Commission has negotiated six contracts with industry under the joint procurement mechanism set up in 2013, for gloves, eye protection, ventilators, test kits and medicines for intensive care or for the treatment of the disease, such as Remdesivir.
However, the Court of Auditors notes that this mechanism, already unpopular in the past, as shown by an evaluation in 2016, has rarely been used by Member States, which continue to prefer their own national supply channels.
When questioned at a press conference, one source attributed this under-utilisation to the fact that the mechanism is more commonly used for preparedness rather than for rapid response.
Link to the Court’s report: https://bit.ly/2M6eal6 (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)