The meeting of EU health ministers began on Tuesday 7 December with a discussion of the draft EU Council Regulation on the common management of medical countermeasures in the event of a cross-border health crisis (see EUROPE 12832/19).
This text - which should make it possible to urgently activate common mechanisms for the inventory, supply, purchase or manufacture of medical countermeasures - was the subject of a simple exchange of views. Many delegations felt that the latest compromise proposal presented by the Slovenian Presidency was not yet mature enough to be agreed upon.
On Tuesday these delegations mainly invited the Presidency to rework two aspects of the text: governance and the involvement of Member States in the decision-making processes, on the one hand, and the link between this draft regulation and the draft regulation on cross-border health threats, on the other (see EUROPE 12845/21).
On the matter of governance, several states, such as the Netherlands, called for enhanced and more balanced cooperation between the EU27 and the Commission, so that the Member States work “on an equal footing” with the European Commission.
The German minister, Jens Spahn, stressed that “the Member States must not just be consulted”, arguing that national and even regional structures should be mobilised and that the competences of the 27 Member States in the area of health should be taken into account.
Several ministers echoed Mr Spahn on this point, including the Hungarian and Austrian ministers. They also stressed the importance of ensuring that the Regulation does not “duplicate” existing crisis mechanisms.
However, all delegations expressed their support for the project and recognised that the Covid-19 pandemic had highlighted the need for such a common health emergency response mechanism.
Asked whether the EU27 would be able to reach an agreement on the regulation by the end of Slovenia's EU Council Presidency on 31 December, Slovenian Minister Janez Poklukar said he hoped a compromise would be reached “as soon as possible” and that the Presidency would get back to work on the text by Wednesday morning. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)