European Commission lays out plans for strengthening EU's response to health emergencies

The European Commission launched new proposals today (11 November) aimed at building a stronger European Health Union with a focus on EU's health security.

Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health said: “Health is more than ever an essential concern for our citizens. In times of crisis, citizens rightfully expect the EU to take a more active role. Today we are reinforcing the foundations for a more secure, better prepared and more resilient EU in the area of health.”

Drawing lessons from the current crisis, today's proposals aim to strengthen preparedness.

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen stated: “The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need for more coordination in the EU, more resilient health systems, and better preparation for future crises. We are changing the way we address cross-border health threats.”

The EU Health Union is targetted at common crisis where there is a serious cross border threats to health. The proposals will revisit existing legal framework for serious cross border threats to health, as well as reinforcing the crisis preparedness and response role of key EU agencies, namely the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

One of the issues it will address is the reporting and auditing of national plans, an area that caused much confusion when trying to assess the situation in different states at the start of the COVID-19 breakout. In future, this information will be stress-tested by the Commission and EU agencies, who will be given more robust powers to assess the information it receives.

An example given was date on bed availability. This information, a senior official said, was not very useful on its own. Staffing numbers, intensive care capacity, negative pressure rooms, and balance of beds between different regions were, among other things, important for giving a more complete picture. The official argued that a more complete and rapidly delivered dataset was needed.

The EU is proposing that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) mandate will be reinforced so that it can provide more support in several areas, including in real-time surveillance, and its ability to deploy a EU Health Task Force to assist local responses.

The European Medicines Agency's mandate will also be reinforced so that it can facilitate a coordinated Union-level response to health crises by monitoring and mitigating the risk of shortages of critical medicines and medical devices.

HERA

The package contains the first etchings for a future Health Emergency Response Authority (HERA), to be proposed by the end of 2021. Such a structure would be an important new element to support a better EU level response to cross-border health threats. The Commission were vague on details, but there is a danger that in setting up yet another agency will lead to unnecessary additional bureaucracy and expense.