The plenary session of the European Parliament has asked this Wednesday that European governments invest more funds to strengthen their health systems and also offer greater transparency when reporting future health crises; as part of the ‘road map’ that MEPs have adopted to move towards a “European Health Union” that improves the coordination and response of the Twenty-seven.
In their recommendations to improve the EU’s crisis management and preparation for future health emergencies, MEPs meeting in Strasbourg (France) call for improvements in four areas that they identify as “health”, “democracy and fundamental rights”, “social aspects and economic” and “global response to the pandemic.
The recommendations are the result of a year of work by the special committee on the COVID-19 (COVI) pandemic of the European Parliament, which has been reflected in a report by the PP MEP Dolors Montserrat, who after the vote has highlighted the need to “boost research, combat fake news and cyber-attacks and create a competitive pharmaceutical sector to reinforce the EU’s strategic autonomy in health matters”.
In this way, the text -adopted with 385 votes in favour, 193 against and 63 abstentions- calls for improving the EU’s strategic autonomy in relation to medicines, transparency in joint procurement processes and calls for a increased national and European parliamentary oversight of emergency legislation.
The European Parliament also calls for optimizing the use of recovery funds to strengthen the Single Market and trusts that global coordination will improve with the future international treaty on pandemics.
They also ask that the EU have a common strategy on mental health that focuses on young people and that integrates actions for all social groups, with special interest in the most vulnerable.
In this line, it calls on the European Commission to present specific legislative proposals to address psychosocial risks at work and to improve the working conditions of health and care professionals.
It also calls on Brussels for “actions and instruments” for Member States to invest more in healthcare, in order to reduce disparities, strengthen national public health and social care systems and improve cross-border healthcare cooperation.
It also expects community services to present legislative and regulatory measures to “identify minimum basic health services and quality standards of care that must be guaranteed” throughout the EU.
MEPs call on governments to ensure transparency when taking action in a crisis situation and provide their citizens with complete, up-to-date, accurate and objective information and data; in addition to basing their decisions to respond to pandemics, especially when they involve restricting the freedoms of citizens, “on scientific criteria and the opinions of the scientific authorities”, within a transparent process.
2023-07-13 05:20:00
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