Speech by President Séamus Boland, EESC plenary debate 'A European flagship initiative for health'

EESC plenary debate 'A European flagship initiative for health'

I would like to congratulate Alain Coheur and express my strong support for this draft Opinion;

The draft Opinion was a proposal from Group III and perfectly complements our recent work on the topic, notably the very successful conference in June in Liège, on the topic 'The State of Health in the EU'.

As time is short, I would like to make three succinct points;

Firstly, health must be placed at the top of European and national political agendas

To achieve this, we must recognise that health policy does not exist in a vacuum, but constitutes a critical sector for the EU's economy alongside energy, food security and technology;

The EU should recognise the right of Europeans to quality, affordable and accessible healthcare, through the creation of European Health and Care Guarantees;

The EU needs to learn from the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic and to place health as a key strategic priority in the political and policy agendas of the European Institutions, for the period 2024-2029.

Secondly, we must urgently build a new architecture for health within the EU

This new architecture should place patients at the centre, making sure that healthcare is more predictable, preventive, personalised and participatory;

The European Institutions should also embark on a more ambitious, holistic and inclusive approach, which recognises the inter-linkages between health and other policies;

In this new architecture, we must recognise that the take up and success of European healthcare initiatives is dependent on transparent, regular and structured dialogue with relevant CSOs, including patient associations. These should have access to sustainable and predictable EU funding.

Thirdly, the EU and Member States should invest in innovative and sustainable health systems

Health must be recognised as a measurable social investment, rather than as a socio-economic cost for European societies;

To achieve this, we need innovative, sustainable and multi-annual investments into European health systems and infrastructure, focussing on prevention, resilience, innovation and crisis-preparedness;

Finally, we must accept that European health systems can only be sustainable alongside accessible and high-quality social services and public social policies, staffed with sufficient numbers of well-trained health professionals

Thank you for your attention.