The Health Ministers of the EU Member States, meeting on Tuesday 29 March in Brussels, were informed that the European Commission has received a mandate from the EU Council to negotiate on behalf of the EU for a WHO international agreement on prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemics, to be concluded in 2024 (see EUROPE 12903/21).
These negotiations, which also include amendments to the International Health Regulations, have already begun, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides told ministers, calling on Member States to show unity.
This decision “shows the leading role the EU is playing in the reform of the global architecture”, welcomed the French Secretary of State for Child Protection, Adrien Taquet, who chaired the session. He stressed that the requests “made repeatedly by the European Council were decisive in getting the work started at the WHO”. No delegation took the floor on Tuesday.
A preliminary draft text will be presented at the second meeting of the intergovernmental negotiating body, which will be held no later than 1 August. “It is crucial for the European Union to be a force in proposing and in contributing to the drafting of the text, which has already begun, and the same goes for the targeted revision of the international health regulations in view of the World Health Assembly in May 2022”, said the French minister.
Stressing that the EU has been “a driving force in this reform of the WHO”, and this future international agreement, which will require prior agreement on changes to the International Health Regulations, Stella Kyriakides said: “This is a historic opportunity to strengthen the international health framework”. She provided assurances that the Commission would consult with the national experts represented in Geneva.
The EU supports the idea of a binding international treaty. The draft text provides that if 2/3 of the world’s countries sign up to the future agreement, it will be binding.
Vaccine solidarity with third countries was discussed by the EU Health Ministers mainly from the perspective of vaccinating Ukrainian refugees in the EU and in neighbouring countries, such as Moldova and Slovakia, to whom the EU will donate 70,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (see other news).
German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who has argued for an EU-wide fourth dose for the over-60s, expressed concern that “the EU will be forced to destroy vaccines”, given the decreasing requirements for many low-income countries who have had to stockpile unused doses. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)