EU Medical Countermeasures and Stockpiling Strategies

The EU Youth Test at the EESC was applied to this opinion. The ESDN Youth  was chosen by a group of interested youth organisations to represent all of them during the opinion-making process.

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Key points

The EESC:

• Welcomes the Commission’s efforts to strengthen the EU’s preparedness and resilience through the medical countermeasures and stockpiling strategies and recommends their transparent management and mobilisation, with continuous coordination among Member States, industry and civil society.
• Calls for adequate Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) resources to support medical countermeasures and strategic stockpiling, encouraging public-private partnerships while avoiding duplication across Member States.
• Urges stable economic, legal and workforce conditions to attract pharmaceutical production in Europe, including a dedicated EU pharmaceutical fund to support facilities, R&D, regulatory costs and investment in active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines production.
• Supports creating a European health innovation entity (modelled on CERN) to boost research, entrepreneurship and collaboration with HERA and other EU agencies.
• Calls for a concrete operational plan for EU stockpiling with clear funding, transparent EU/national responsibilities, strong workforce training, monitoring and fair incentives for industry, including SMEs.
• Emphasises the need for a transparent economic framework, coordinated logistics, flexible transport rules and fair cost-sharing for rapid deployment of critical goods.
• Stresses involving social partners, civil society and specialised contractors to ensure transparency and technical expertise, prioritising EU-owned safety stocks and support for storage, cold chain and dual-use infrastructure.
• Highlights investment in workforce skills through lifelong learning, harmonised curricula, regular simulations and recognition of public health as a profession, ensuring resilient reserve management and crisis response.
• Advocates sustainable, demand-driven stockpiling supported by real-time digital tracking, product-based thresholds and affordability to ensure fair, transparent and accessible preparedness.