The European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, announced on Thursday 10 February the launch of the first action plan adopted by the EU Council for HERA - the new Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority - at the informal meeting of EU Health Ministers.
The new structure, created in September 2021 and with a budget of €6 billion for the period 2022-2027, aims to sustain tools for responding to the current pandemic and to improve European coordination and capacity to enable the EU - and also the world - to anticipate and respond to potential future cross-border health crises.
The adoption of HERA’s first work plan paves the way for the first actions of the new authority. For this first year, its operational agenda is ambitious and will be carried out jointly with Member States, national and European health agencies such as the EMA or ECDC, in collaboration with the research sector, industry, civil society and international partners.
The 2022 work plan is structured around 6 axes with a number of expected results and an indicative timetable. It is a tool that is intended to be agile, based around emergencies and priorities.
The plan includes first of all the detection of threats, the collection of data on these threats and their modelling. Secondly, the promotion of research and development aimed at developing medical countermeasures, for example through the funding of research projects.
The third area is the identification of critical technology needs and production capabilities for medical countermeasures in Europe and the development of the necessary capabilities.
The fourth area of work aims to ensure the availability of stocks of medical countermeasures, in particular through procurement at European level for vaccines or innovative solutions.
In addition, the plan includes working to improve the knowledge and skills of Member States to better prepare and respond with medical countermeasures through the organisation of training programmes.
Finally, the sixth axis is its international dimension and aims at better coordination and cooperation within the EU and across European borders to improve responses to potential future health crises.
For the implementation of this action plan in 2022, HERA will have a contribution from the European budget of €1.3 billion. Most of the funding in times of crisis should be through the Emergency Support Instrument. HERA’s 2022 budget assumes a contribution from EU4Health, Horizon Europe and the European Civil Protection Mechanism/RescUE mainly through calls for projects. Some actions will include public procurement and grants.
Link to the HERA Work Plan for 2022: https://aeur.eu/f/as (Original version in French by Emilie Vanderhulst)