EU local and regional leaders express concern about the
progress of the EU's roll-out of vaccines and ask for
more coordination and equal access for all Europeans
The European Committee of the Regions and the World
Health Organization (WHO) today signed an Action
Plan to improve the resilience of regional and
local health systems through joint research and
policymaking. The Action Plan, which builds on
long-standing cooperation launched in November
2016, also responds to the need to address some key
challenges of the pandemic by improving
coordination between different levels of health
governance. It will allow the joint assessment of
health policies' effectiveness on the ground and
suggest possible remedies to make regional and
local systems more responsive to the pandemic
challenges.
In a
resolution
debated on 4 February
#CoRPlenary, EU local and regional leaders expressed concern
about the progress of the EU's coordinated roll-out
of vaccines and asked to develop a European
dashboard to monitor vaccine uptake and
distribution by region. In particular, they
rejected vaccine "nationalism" as running counter
to the principles of "solidarity, unity and
efficiency" and of "the principles of equal access
to vaccines for all EU citizens".
Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the President of the European Committee of the
Regions and Governor of the Greek region of Central
Macedonia, said: "
The Action Plan we are launching today with the WHO
will improve health resilience in our regions,
cities and villages. If there is one lesson we
learnt by the challenges we faced during the
pandemic, it is that regional and local
governments' role is vital in preparing,
responding, managing and recovering from the crisis
."
Commenting on the roll-out of the EU's vaccination
campaign, he added: ''
Vaccination is key to restart our regional and
local economies. We must avoid competition for
vaccines between Member States and within Members
States. Any 'vaccine divide' that would increase
inequalities between our regions, cities and
villages is unacceptable; this is why our Committee
is asking for a European dashboard that monitors
vaccines' availability and distribution at regional
level."
Speaking during the debate,
Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, Regional Director for Europe for the World Health Organization,
said: "Local governments in the Europe region have been
and still are at the forefront of curtailing the
pandemic. Cities are epicentres in this emergency,
not only in terms of community- and country-wide
transmission, but also as points of health care,
and travel and trade hubs. Cities are the closest
level of government to people. And they are also
key to sharing experiences and fighting
misinformation, as service providers and central
elements of a sustainable future."
Draft CoR resolution on the COVID-19 pandemic
vaccination campaign.
Background information
Contact:
Michele Cercone
Spokesperson of the President
Tel. +32 (0)498 98 23 49
Michele.Cercone@cor.europa.eu
David French
Tel. +32 473 85 47 59
David.French@cor.europa.eu