As the current mandate comes to an end, it is time to draw conclusions and start prioritising for the upcoming legislative period. Recent years have seen some particularly important developments in the field of health. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Europeans realised that we needed to work much more closely together in the health sector and set common public health priorities.
One of the greatest successes of the subsequent deepening of co-operation has undoubtedly been the joint procurement of vaccines. In addition, the objective of building a genuine European Health Union through the creation of new European institutions, such as the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Agency (HERA) or the creation of the European Health Data Space, were groundbreaking. Their development and improvement will continue in the future. Most likely, they will even be dealt with in a newly created Health Committee, which would follow on from the Special Committee on Combating Cancer, the Special Committee on Lessons Learned from the Covid-19 Pandemic and the current Sub-Committee on Health.
However, amid all the enthusiasm that health issues are finally getting more attention at European Union level, it must also be clear that health policy remains the responsibility of the member states. The EU can, and should, only play a facilitating role.
This has a long tradition, as health systems vary widely across the EU. That is why, especially in the health sector, we do not need a little bit of Europe everywhere, but a strong Europe in the right places. In the future, we should focus on projects that have a real European added value. This includes the implementation of new initiatives, such as joint efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance, and the implementation, adaptation and improvement of existing legislation.
Therefore, high on the agenda in the upcoming legislative period will be the revision of the legislation for medical devices and in-vitro diagnostics devices, which was adopted during the previous mandate.
We do not need a little bit of Europe everywhere, but a strong Europe in the right places
These laws were designed to fundamentally restructure the European market for medical devices and improve patient safety. However, through stricter rules, more bureaucracy and unnecessary re-certification of existing products, the opposite has been achieved.
The industry, which consists mainly of medium-sized companies, has been overburdened, resulting in products being taken off the market. Despite some adjustments during this mandate, significant changes are needed. Therefore, there is no way around a comprehensive de-bureaucratisation of the legal framework.
Another area where the EU has the potential to provide significant added value is in the provision of medicines and in creating an environment in which research and development of new medicines is appropriately rewarded. The European Parliament will pay particular attention to these issues in the forthcoming negotiations with member states on the revision of the pharmaceutical legislation.
We must also ensure that the problems of medicine shortages are brought under control. The EU is the largest single market in the world, and it is time to act accordingly. We need to move away from the idea that the cheapest is always the best. We need diversified supply chains, even if this means slightly higher prices.
In this regard, we have gained first experiences with joint procurement of medicines during the pandemic. With the lack of transparency on the deal with vaccines, not everything went well. This does not mean that we don’t go for joint procurement anymore, but instead must be encouraged to work on clear rules for such procurements. The aim must be to have good accessibility to medicines for all Europeans and to strengthen our innovation capability in this field.