The European Commission wants the European Union (EU) to be able to “independently and flexibly” declare public health emergencies in future outbreaks or epidemics, as the World Health Organization (WHO) did with covid-19.
“We need to have the flexibility to respond to health crises and, therefore, if we are able […] to declare an emergency situation at EU level this would immediately allow for the transfer of equipment, carrying out joint purchases and the implementation of measures by the Commission ”, said the European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, in an interview with several health agencies European news, including Lusa.
In this interview regarding the presentation of a package of proposals to create a “true European Health Union”, at the height of the covid-19 pandemic, Stella Kyriakides argued that the declaration of public health emergencies would enable “a European response much more anticipated ”.
“We have to be able to do that. The new rules that we are going to create for a European Health Union will allow us to activate the EU’s emergency response mechanism, of course in close cooperation with WHO, but not depending on WHO ”, said the European Commissioner.
For the official, this is a “crucial measure”, first of all “learning from the beginning of the current crisis”, which demonstrated that the EU must “act quickly and effectively”.
This is one of the proposals presented today by the European Commission for the creation of a “true European Health Union”, after the difficulties experienced in recent months due to covid-19, in a package that also foresees the reinforcement of the mandates of the European Prevention Center and Disease Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the creation of a new authority to manage future health crises.
“We will be able to declare an emergency, jointly at European level, and activate our emergency response mechanisms independently, but in close cooperation with WHO,” said Stella Kyriakides.
In January of this year, WHO declared covid-19 as a global public health emergency, this being the sixth time that the organization has resorted to such a state of alert, after having done so with diseases such as Ebola, polio, influenza A or the Zika virus.
According to the WHO regulation, an international health emergency translates into an “extraordinary event that poses a risk to public health for other States through the international spread of diseases and potentially requires a coordinated international response”.
In practice, this leads health authorities to increase their monitoring and control of the disease, and should be alert to the need to adopt containment measures.
This is what the European Commission wants to be possible in the EU.
The organization and provision of health care is the responsibility of the national authorities of the Member States, so the EU must complement national policies and coordinate joint responses, including through the sharing of resources for common problems, such as pandemics or outbreaks.
Supporting this assistance to countries are the two agencies specialized in health issues, ECDC and EMA.
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