On Tuesday 29 June, EU Commissioner Margarítis Schinás presented to MEPs the European Commission’s “early lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic” (see EUROPE 12742/5) - an analysis that was generally welcomed by the political groups.
The decision to create a European system for collecting information on pandemics was welcomed by several of them, in particular by Véronique Trillet-Lenoir (France), coordinator of the Renew Europe group.
Ms Trillet-Lenoir, who will represent the European Parliament in the negotiations on the regulation on cross-border health threats (see EUROPE 12704/2), intends to suggest the creation, via this regulation, of an online portal to “share verified information” on health threats.
The MEP asked whether this could be considered as an “addendum” to the original proposal for the regulation. “We are not yet ready to establish the necessary hooks”, Schinás replied, acknowledging however that “the interconnection between the proposal on the table and the future proposal should be built”.
Socialist coordinator Jytte Guteland (Sweden) said she would have liked to see the issue of “interactions with animals” and the risks of zoonotic infections better addressed. “Europe must set an example in the sanitary treatment of animals”, she insisted.
French Green MEP Michèle Rivasi, speaking on behalf of the Greens/EFA group, regretted the lack of reflection in the European Commission’s conclusions about the “complete opacity of the EU’s decision-making process on its vaccine strategy” and the lack of “democratic control by the Parliament”.
Referring to the repeated refusal to publish contracts for the purchase of vaccines (see EUROPE 12688/13), Ms Rivasi regretted that the European Commission had “taken away any possibility for MEPs to control where public money goes”. This argument was dismissed by Mr Schinás, who, on the contrary, considered, without going into detail, that the European Commission had made “efforts” on the subject.
The lessons learned by the European Commission were also presented to EU-27 leaders last week (see EUROPE 12749/4) and are expected to be the subject of EU Council conclusions.
According to Slovenian Ambassador Iztok Jarc, whose country will hold the rotating Presidency of the EU Council from Thursday 1 July, it should be possible for the conclusions to be adopted by the Ministers for European Affairs in October or November.
To consult the European Commission’s communication: https://bit.ly/2S5peCi (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)