Health is our joint concern, the EU must step up

The COVID-19 crisis has shown that health threats do not respect borders. Short of closing down borders indefinitely, Member States alone would not be able to slow down the spread of the virus. Nor do they have the means to invest in bespoke medicine or a vaccine on their own. Even though EU countries remain responsible for many parts of health policy, the EPP Group believes the European Union can do a lot more within its existing competences than it is currently doing.

What did we learn from our response to the pandemic?

To cooperate better. When the pandemic hit, the lack of coordinated action at EU level resulted in real problems, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic. There was a shortage of medical equipment as a result of border closures, families were separated, testing was unevenly carried out.

We must not repeat this mistake

We believe the solution is not to close borders and not to restrict exports of protective equipment. The solution is also not to pit national competences against European competences and see which project fails first. The reality is simple - the pandemic demonstrated that we cannot overcome a crisis of this magnitude by acting on our own. Therefore, the solution as we see it, is to work together.

This is why the EPP Group supports the following concrete actions in this direction:

1) Funds for building hospital infrastructure and health services

We ask for the setting-up of a dedicated EU fund specifically aimed at reducing the differences in healthcare across all EU countries. All Europeans deserve a comparable level of healthcare.

In order to avoid overcrowding in hospitals, we want to establish a European network of hospitals specialised in pandemic response in each EU region.

2) Develop, produce and share a COVID-19 vaccine

The EU must take the lead in developing and producing a vaccine and make it globally available and affordable. We must do this while cooperating with the rest of the world.

If we are not first to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, we must have a Plan B. If any country outside of the EU wants to keep the vaccine for themselves, we will have to resort to forced or compulsory licencing. This will allow us to use the recipe for the vaccine production without formal consent of the original patent holder.

Compulsory licensing must be done jointly. It would not make any sense for France and Germany to allow it, and Italy and Spain not to allow it. The European Commission, not individual countries, must be in charge of the process and coordination at EU level.

3) Master plan against cancer

Every year, cancer kills 9 million people. In the European Union alone, 1.3 million people die of cancer every year and 3.5 million new cases are diagnosed. Cancer is a European problem for which we need a European solution.

We want a master plan against cancer, pooling our efforts in research, resources and experience. There is a clear European benefit from early prevention to diagnosis, treatments and care as well as strengthening the rights of cancer survivors.

4) Encourage digital solutions to fight the Corona crisis

In order to better fight a highly infectious disease like COVID-19, we need timely and accurate information on the spread of the disease. We are in favour of the use of apps, and the establishment of a European coordination centre to exchange data and information on people coming into the EU from abroad as a means of protecting the health of Europeans.

If the apps are to be useful across borders, we need to put in place common EU standards for data collection and analysis and work towards a common data pool.

5) Prevent a shortage of life-saving medicine in Europe

The pandemic has demonstrated the dangers of outsourcing the production of key medicines outside of the EU. It is our strategic interest to relocate key pharmaceutical industries back to Europe, and create a shared European stock of medicines and medical equipment in order not to be largely dependent on outside suppliers.

6) Better cross-border cooperation

During the peak of the pandemic, there were areas in Europe that were overrun by the disease. Hospitals were working at levels exceeding their capacities and doctors were putting in exhausting hours in order to cope and save lives. We want to avoid this from happening again and put in place a real European system of solidarity.

We want health professionals to be able to move freely and work in hospitals across the borders, if they are needed. We want patients to have the possibility to be treated in a hospital across the border if domestic hospitals are overcrowded.

7) More money for health in new EU budget

None of our ambitions in health can be achieved without additional resources. On our initiative, the European Commission announced an increase to the health budget, Health4EU, from €413 million in 2018 to €9.4 billion over the next 7 years. Health must be made a priority in European politics in the decades to come.

8) Reduce the use of antibiotics in humans

According to WHO figures, 33,000 people die in Europe every year because antibiotics do not work anymore as a result of overmedication and antibiotics present in our food. We want more funding for research to develop new antibiotics. We also want recently modernised rules for the use of antibiotics in animals to be applied without delay.

We are better together

While we learn to live with COVID-19, we can no longer close our eyes to our own vulnerability. And we no longer have an excuse for being unprepared. We can face another pandemic only if we coordinate our efforts and stand together as a European family. We are better together.