CoR members back the EU's emerging crisis-response
system and initiatives to improve prevention,
detection and care.
Local and regional leaders warmly welcomed
comments by European Commissioner for Health and
Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, supporting their
role in implementing the European Health Union.
Commissioner Kyriakides discussed with the
members of the European Committee of the Regions
key issues including EU's preparations for future
health crises and citizens' access to care
outside their country of residence.
The debate on
"a Health Union for Europe and its regions"
was held during the CoR's plenary on 10 October and
was an opportunity for local and regional leaders to
assess the progress made in building the EU Health Union
(EHU), since the COVID-19 pandemic. Health policies are
determined by national governments, but the pandemic
laid bare the shortcomings of the existing legal
framework. The EHU, across its legal acts, is giving
more powers to key EU agencies and laying down rules
on serious cross-border health threats, on medicines,
and on digitalisation in health providing the Union with
more instruments to act should a new health crisis
arise.
Vasco Alves Cordeiro, President of the European Committee of the Regions,
said:
"The COVID-19 pandemic made it harshly clear that
all levels of governance need to join forces to
combat major health threats. Our citizens'
well-being depends on a high level of human
health protection and in two thirds of the EU Member
States, cities and regions are responsible for the
management of health care services. However,
their key role in implementing these policies on the
ground often remains unacknowledged. The European
Health Union has the potential to make a real
difference in the lives of people across the EU, but
it can only succeed if local and regional
authorities are at the centre of it."
In 19 of the 27 Member States, local and regional
authorities bear the primary responsibility for the
planning, organising, and delivering of healthcare
services to citizens.
Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for
health and food safety, said:
“Local and regional authorities have played a
crucial role in our efforts to respond to COVID-19
and I believe will be at the forefront of possible
future health crises as well. They play a most
important role in delivering healthcare services
which are central elements of a strong European
Health Union. I look forward to continue working
with EUs regions and cities to deliver resilient,
accessible, affordable and effective health systems
across the EU.”
The Committee of the Regions across all its opinions
has long called for greater recognition of the role
of local and regional authorities in public health
policy and for more meaningful involvement for cities
and regions in policy making and implementation
efforts.
The Committee supported also the regulation making it
mandatory for Member States to devise their
preparedness and response plans for serious health
threats. The CoR – as well as the Parliament – called for
greater involvement of regions in the design and
delivery of such plans to fully capture cross-border
dimension. The Committee expects the national
governments to include regional authorities in the
first round of this plan-making due to be shared with
Brussels by the end of 2023. The Committee also awaits
the first implementation report from the European
Commission.
The CoR believes that the Health Emergency
Preparedness and Response Agency (HERA), one of the
pillars of the European Health Union intended to
strengthen the EU's ability to prevent, detect, and
respond to major health threats, should work not only
with the Member States but also their regions,
especially in cross-border context. Resilience should
underpin all policies, starting with health and civil
protection. The CoR welcomes therefore the
Vulnerability Dashboard, an interactive tool designed
to help public authorities to assess their strengths and
weaknesses. The Dashboard, requested by the CoR, is
now hosted and further developed by the EU Joint
Research Centre.
Most recently, the CoR accepted a Council Presidency
referral on
"The role of cities as health promoters"
and the opinion by rapporteur
Adam Banaszak
(PL/ECR) was adopted in the NAT commission on 5
October.
The CoR collaborates closely with a whole range of
non-government organisations active in the field of
public health. Since 2016, the Committee has worked
with the UN WHO Regional Office for Europe,
connecting local and regional health policy and practice
with a global health vision.
Background information:
The first initiatives towards the European Health
Union were launched by the European Commission in
November 2020. Drawing on the lessons learned from
the COVID-19 pandemic, its goal was to strengthen the
EU's health security preparedness and to bolster key EU
agencies' crisis response. It included three legislative
acts: one on serious cross-border health threats, one
on new mandates for the European Medicines Agency
(EMA) and one on the European Centre for Disease
Prevention and Control (ECDC). The Health and
Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA)
that was proposed a year later was designed to
complement the Health Union.
In the current political mandate alone, the CoR has
adopted the following opinions:
"Regulation on the European Health Data
Space"
by rapporteur
Daniela Cîmpean
(RO/EPP);
"Health Emergency preparedness and Response
Authority
" by rapporteur
Christophe Clergeau
(FR/PES);
"Europe's Beating Cancer Plan",
"A pharmaceutical strategy for Europe and
legislative proposal for changing the mandate of
the European Medicines Agency (EMA)", and
"EU Health Emergency Mechanism"
all by rapporteur
Birgitta Sacrédeus
(SE/EPP);
"Cross-border health threats and the mandate
of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and
Control"
by rapporteur
Olgierd Geblewicz
(PL/EPP);
"European Health Union: Reinforcing the EU’s
resilience"
by rapporteur
Roberto Ciambetti
(IT/ECR); and
"Cross-border health care"
by rapporteur
Karsten Uno Petersen
(DK/PES).
Factsheet: "A European Health Union:
tackling health crises together – The role of EU
agencies"
Find out more on the European Health Data
Space
Background material: The plenary
agenda and opinions and amendments.
Webstreaming: On the
website
of the CoR.
Contact:
Wioletta Wojewodzka
Tel. +32 (0) 473 84 39 86
wioletta.wojewodzka@cor.europa.eu