EU4Health Programme

Key points

• The EESC calls on the EU institutions and the Member States to demonstrate the political will to implement a "Health Pact for the Future of Europe" that reflects the fundamental values of the European Union, including European solidarity, and the pledges made both internationally and at European level.

• The EESC calls on the European Parliament, to negotiate with the Council both to increase funding for the health programme and other instruments promoting synergies in health and to have specific recourse to European Stability Mechanism funds to put an end to austerity.

• The EESC calls for European guidelines to be adopted to meet the needs of the most vulnerable among us: people with a precarious existence, the elderly and people with disabilities, particularly those who have to live in facilities accommodating considerable numbers of people, which have been hit hard across Europe by the pandemic and its aftermath.

• The EESC proposes that a European mechanism for coordination and rapid intervention should be deployed as soon as possible.

• A task force of experts must be set up immediately to act as a knowledge and resource coordinator to create a network of the best virology and epidemiology centres and the best diagnostic capacities.

• The EESC believes that the health programme can only achieve real results by adopting an inclusive approach that involves international organisations (including the World Health Organization), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and those health sector stakeholders most familiar with people's situations on the ground, not to mention regularly assessing the objectives.

• The EESC stresses the value of healthcare personnel and calls for constant monitoring to anticipate their needs in terms of training, organisation, protective equipment and economic and social well-being.

• The EESC strongly supports European public/private partnerships in the field of health along the lines of the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking, and upholds the joint efforts to redevelop European technology and manufacturing by making greater use of European scientific and health bodies seeking to create a genuine European health space.