With the European Commission announcing the European Health Union initiative which the European Parliament’s Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats called to undertake, it is important to understand what specific actions the Commission will employ in order to ensure not only the effective containment of the pandemic, but also the further strengthening of European health in general.
“For a long time, we have said that we must strengthen the health of European citizens, regardless of national limitations and borders. Diseases recognise no borders, and so in order to ensure that all European can make use of their fundamental right to healthcare, we must strengthen scientific research and ensure that across Europe, access will be available to the best and highest quality treatment equipment and that our specialists’ abilities would be of the highest order,” MEP J. Olekas stated in the address.
The document sent to the European Commission also inquires how the Commission will ensure that the newly forming health initiatives would ensure inter-sectoral synergies between different patients’ needs. Ensuring a balance between the treatment of rare and infectious diseases, but at the same time preventative protection and other areas is crucial, J. Olekas observes.
“The European Health Union must operate under a holistic approach to health, but also to ensure that health would become one of the main areas of EU policy. Accessible, high quality and timely healthcare is the right of every European citizen, and so by working with EU member states, we must ensure that all patients’ needs are matched and that none are left behind,” MEP J. Olekas also said.
The questions submitted to the Commission also inquire about the European Health Crisis Response Agency, which the Commission aims to establish on the basis of the positive example of the United States’ BARDA agency. The members of the European Parliament are asking for confirmation whether the agency creation process will involve cooperation with the US’ BARDA in order to ensure the adoption of best practices.
The questions to the European Commission initiated by J. Olekas were co-signed by 18 other members of the European Parliament: István UJHELYI, Vilija BLINKEVIČIŪTĖ, Olivier CHASTEL, Elisabetta GUALMINI, Bronis ROPĖ, Maria-Manuel LEITÃO-MARQUES, Magdalena ADAMOWICZ, Milan BRGLEZ, Attila ARA-KOVÁCS, Manuel PIZARRO, Sara CERDAS, Cindy FRANSSEN, Viktor USPASKICH, Biljana BORZAN, Alex AGIUS SALIBA, Margarida MARQUES, Barry ANDREWS, Ulrike MÜLLER.
