As Ljubljana takes its first steps at the helm of the EU Council (see EUROPE 12756/1), Slovenian Health Minister Janez Poklukar spoke to MEPs, on Monday 12 July, about his priorities for the next six months.
In particular, he informed the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) that he intends to reach an Interinstitutional Agreement on the three proposals for regulations to better prevent new health crises (see EUROPE 12600/24).
Representatives of the Parliament’s main political groups welcomed the announcement and said they hoped that progress could be made by the autumn.
Only the negotiations on the proposal to revise the mandate of the European Medicines Agency can start before the summer break (see EUROPE 12758/7). Discussions are still ongoing in the EU Council on the other two proposals - on cross-border health threats (see EUROPE 12758/20) and the ECDC mandate (see EUROPE 12746/11).
The European Parliament will have to wait until its next plenary session in mid-September to adopt a final negotiating position on these two proposals.
HERA. Stressing the “ added value of European cooperation” in the area of health, the minister also promised that the Slovenian Presidency would give priority to the ‘HERA’ dossier once the Commission had presented its proposal on the subject.
The latter will take the form of a regulation and should therefore, once adopted, allow the creation of a European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (see EUROPE 12692/14), modelled after the US Barda agency.
The Commission’s proposal was originally announced for the third quarter of 2021. It seems that the second half of 2021 is now more likely. No precise date for the presentation has been set for the moment, a European source confirmed to EUROPE.
Unequal systems and shortages in medicine. In the meantime, the Slovenian Presidency will work on drafting EU Council conclusions: In particular, Ljubljana is expected to emphasise the need to develop equal health systems in the EU, to reduce persistent inequalities in health care and to strengthen European competitiveness on the world stage, the minister told MEPs.
With regard to European strategic autonomy, Mr Poklukar also recalled that the pandemic had highlighted the Union’s lack of autonomy in terms of access to medicines (see EUROPE 12741/8).
“We would like to consider joint solutions to increase (this) accessibility”, the Slovenian minister said. In its programme, the Presidency had said it wanted to “encourage a debate” on the issue. In particular, it is expected to address shortage issues related to lack of commercial interest, “as is happening in the field of antimicrobials and in the case of generic or older drugs for oncology treatments“.
Cancer. Lastly, the new Presidency will in turn address one of Europe’s top health priorities: the fight against cancer (see EUROPE 12711/16). This announcement was also warmly welcomed by MEPs.
At the beginning of July, Mr Poklukar had announced, at a press conference in Slovenia, that the Presidency hoped to organise an event in December bringing together the members the European Innovative Partnership for Action Against Cancer - iPAAC.
This European partnership coordinated by the National Institute of Public Health of Slovenia (NIJZ) was launched in 2018 for a period of three years. One of its objectives was to support the EU27 in implementing actions to combat cancer.
More broadly, in terms of the agenda, Mr Poklukar announced that he would chair two meetings of EU Health Ministers: the first, informal, will take place in October, the second in December.
To consult the programme: https://bit.ly/3AhhkXI (Agathe Cherki with Camille-Cerise Gessant)