Devising a European flagship initiative for health

Background

The EU is facing multiple crises which require strengthened solidarity between Member States and the European institutions through a European Health Union package. Though the COVID-19 crisis highlighted the importance of having an integrated approach to health in the EU, the main goal of the European Health Union cannot be limited to combating pandemics: it must also aim to achieve good health, including ensuring the universal quality and accessibility of health services, developing policies and measures to promote good health and prevent health problems, and incorporating non-medical determinants.

While the EU has set up legal frameworks and developed initiatives aimed at protecting and helping to improve people’s health, many objectives have yet to be met because the EU does not have sufficient competences in this area. The EESC sees health as a fundamental public good and recommends a comprehensive and integrated approach in order to strengthen the EU’s health resilience and ensure equal access to healthcare through the single market.

Existing mechanisms to overcome health challenges are fragmented and related objectives are not integrated across all EU policies. This opinion calls on the European institutions to turn the flagship initiative and implementation roadmap into a strategic priority in its own right (on par with the Green Deal and the Blue Deal, among others).

Key points

The EESC:

• calls for a European flagship initiative for health, based on the principles of universality, quality, accessibility, solidarity and inclusivity;
• has set out the strategic pillars of this roadmap which include the following actions:
  • establishing a European care and healthcare guarantee;
  • implementing the integrated One Health approach;
  • harnessing the potential of digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) to modernise health systems;
  • upholding European financial instruments to support national health initiatives and funding;
  • prioritising social and health investments;
  • promoting an integrated scoreboard of socio-economic, health and environmental reforms, with a view to a strategy that goes beyond growth;
  • developing a targeted investment plan to strengthen capacity and promote care professions and healthcare workers;
  • undertaking collaborations between the EU and WHO/Europe to retain, attract and support care workers, including nursing staff;
  • improving health and safety at work;
  • implementing both an EU action plan and national plans on rare diseases Integrating health diplomacy as a soft power instrument  in the EU’s external policies;
• calls for a more institutionalised involvement of civil society in defining, evaluating and monitoring health priorities.

The text of the draft opinion can be found here.

Additional information

Section: Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship (SOC)

Opinion number: SOC/801

Opinion type: Own-Initiative

Rapporteur: Alain Coheur

Date of adoption by section: 3/10/2024

Result of the vote: 69 in favour/0 against/11 abstentions

Date of adoption in plenary: xxxx – xxxx

Result of the vote:   in favour/ against/ abstentions

Contacts

Press officer: Leonard Mallett

Tel.: 00 32 2 546 93 37

Email: Leonard.Mallett@eesc.europa.eu  

Administrator: Valeria Atzori

Tel.: +32 2 546 87 74

Email: Valeria.Atzori@eesc.europa.eu