to ensure that both the legislative and non-legislative framework related to the future European Health Union and more specifically the legal framework for the European Health Data Space reflects the responsibilities of local and regional authorities in public health and takes into account their positions, given that 19 of the 27 Member States have opted to give LRAs primary responsibility for healthcare
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
- underlines that citizens' health-related expectations towards the EU were reflected in the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe, in particular as regards strengthening the resilience and quality of the health systems by "creating a European Health Data Space";
stresses that the success of the EHDS requires a multi-level governance approach and solutions not only at EU and national level, but also at regional and local level;
believes that one of the challenges involved in rolling out the EHDS will be providing sufficient resources and infrastructure, including physical infrastructure at national, regional and local level, to cover the storage of, access to and exchange of health data for healthcare provision, research, policy-making and regulatory activities; the cost estimates included in the proposal do not identify local and regional costs clearly enough and it is unclear to what extent Member States' transition costs will be covered and how the costs incurred by the various stakeholders will be handled;
calls on the Commission to discuss and present suggestions on how the Union can support the development of additional physical infrastructure for data storage in the Member States, including at local and regional level;
notes that several Member States are already working at national and decentralised level to find digital solutions for the exchange of data across sectors, and for many of the other elements contained in the Regulation. Therefore, the experience acquired through this type of initiative should be harnessed and tapped in future through the EHDS;
stresses the need to further clarify the role and powers of the EHDS Board and calls for the CoR, as the representative of local and regional authorities, to be represented on the EHDS Board.