The European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, presented her program establishing a Health Europe. Learning from the current health crisis, the European executive aims to create a new agency and strengthen the capabilities of existing ones to better face future pandemics.
The Cypriot commissioner unveiled the European executive’s project to create a “European Health Union” and to “turn the health crisis into an opportunity.”
A key element of the Commission’s project is the creation of a new authority, called the “Health Emergency Response Authority” (HERA), modeled after the “U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (Barda).”
The parameters of this future agency are still unclear but are expected to be part of a formal proposal by the end of 2021, with an anticipated operational start in 2023. Like its American counterpart, this authority could also “invest early in pharmaceutical R&D.”
In addition to this new health authority, the European Commission also wishes to be able to activate an EU emergency response mechanism independently of the World Health Organization.
This would give it “flexibility to immediately declare an emergency situation and begin stockpiling, launching public procurement, and having an early response,” adds the Commissioner for Health.
At the same time, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) would also see its mandate strengthened and be equipped “with additional tasks and staff to monitor risks of shortages of medicines and medical devices and to facilitate trials and approval procedures for potential crucial treatments.”
In the same vein, the European Commission would like to strengthen the powers of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Currently, it “is limited to presenting scientific data, leaving each national capital responsible for interpreting the significance of this data.” In the Commission’s proposal, the ECDC could “make policy recommendations.”
If the Commission’s proposals are approved by governments and European deputies, these reforms would be immediately applicable and could strengthen the EU’s powers in the fight against the current pandemic, which most European countries are experiencing a resurgence.
