An agreement was reached in the European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents on Wednesday 18 January to create a sub-committee dedicated to public health within the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI).
The creation of this sub-committee should ensure the continuation of the work of the ENVI Committee’s Health Working Group.
The public health sub-committee is expected to be called upon to work on issues such as cross-border threats, disease prevention, treatment and thus pharmaceuticals and medical devices, etc. This sub-committee should not have direct legislative powers but will report to the main committee, ENVI.
The sub-committee’s mandate must now be approved by MEPs in plenary session. This plenary review could take place in February.
In line with Rule 212 of the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, its members should be “chosen from among the members of the main committee”, ENVI, and thus reflect “as far as possible the composition of the Parliament” (Rule 209 of the Rules of Procedure).
On the same day, the Conference of Presidents agreed to the request of the European Parliament’s special committee established to learn the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic (COVI) to extend its mandate by 3 months.
At their meeting on Tuesday 25 October, the coordinators felt that the work of the special committee needed more time. COVI chair Kathleen Van Brempt (S&D, Belgian) announced after the meeting that the special committee would submit a request to the Conference of Presidents to adopt a decision extending the duration of the committee’s mandate, which was initially set for an extendable 12-month period. (see EUROPE 13053/20). (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)