EU Health Ministers and Commissioner Kyriakides reiterated repeatedly, on Tuesday 12 October, that the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over. Vaccination and the development of treatments remain the main priorities at this stage.
The ministers and the Commissioner, meeting in Slovenia (see EUROPE 12809/11), nevertheless devoted a large part of their informal meeting to the post-Covid-19 period, mentioning the need to strengthen their respective health systems - the fragility of which has been demonstrated by the crisis - and to prepare the EU for possible new crises.
This meeting was the first opportunity for the EU27 ministers to discuss the launch of HERA, the new EU Health Emergency Response Authority, which was unveiled in mid-September (see EUROPE 12792/24).
“The ministers welcomed the Commission's proposal” on this issue, said Slovenian Minister Janez Poklukar after the meeting.
“All of us health ministers, after this year of crisis management, know that something has to be done, that the EU infrastructure has to be strengthened”, his Czech counterpart, Adam Vojtěch, told the press on his arrival.
“A question of governance”
German Health Minister Jens Spahn also stressed that HERA itself was an important initiative that could “make the difference” in the post-pandemic EU.
“We are very grateful and very happy with the proposal in general”, he added, stating that “as always within the European Union, it’s about governance”.
“For us as Member States, and for Germany in particular, it is very important that the Member States also have a say, and that this is visible in the governance and structure” of HERA, he said, stressing the need for joint decision-making.
On this point, Commissioner Stella Kyriakides told a press conference that she had assured ministers at the meeting that HERA would be a “a joint undertaking with Member States, EU agencies, the European Parliament and other stakeholders like the industry and the civil society”.
While MEPs, despite the Commission’s promises, said they felt excluded from the project (see EUROPE 12799/11), Member States have been more closely involved. Their representatives will sit on HERA’s board of directors when it is in “preparedness” phase, and on its crisis board in the event of a health emergency.
Strategic autonomy
Beyond the implementation of HERA, the ministers recognised that it was high time to give substance to the European Health Union.
Their meeting was an opportunity to contribute to the preparation of conclusions on the subject, which should be discussed and adopted at the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) meeting in December.
In particular, the ministers emphasised the need to improve the EU’s capacity to produce medicines in order to strengthen its strategic autonomy in this area.
“We are too dependent on the EU's external markets”, the Slovenian minister repeated.
Just imagine a world where vaccines only had been developed in China or Russia and where the Western democracies and the European union would be dependent on these autocracies for their vaccines. That would not be a good world!”, the German minister argued as well.
Their French counterpart, Olivier Vérant, also echoed these statements on Twitter after the meeting, saying that “tomorrow’s health depends on our sovereignty in the field of medicines and medical devices”. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)