The COVI Committee (Special Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic) votes on its final report, adopted by 23 votes in favour, 13 against and one abstention. Extracts from the vote and statements by Dolors MONTSERRAT (EPP,ES), Rapporteur and by Kathleen VAN BREMPT (S&D,BE), COVI Chair. The report which concludes the year and three months a half long intensive work of the Committee on collecting the evidence and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it had on citizens and their fundamental rights, the businesses, the health sector and international community.

statement

Strasbourg

plenary session

vote

VAN BREMPT, Kathleen (S&D, BE)

Public health (T2)

MONTSERRAT, Dolors (EPP, ES)

EU covid-19 certificate (T)

EU's response to covid-19 (T)

Special Committee COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned and recommendations for the future

Delivery EE2024 (T)

COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned and recommendations for the future: extracts from the vote (12/06) and statements by Dolors MONTSERRAT (EPP, ES), Rapporteur and by Kathleen VAN BREMPT (S&D, BE), COVI Chair

Illustrative shots of the voting session (13 shots)

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Dolors MONTSERRAT (EPP, ES), Rapporteur, - After the pandemic and all its effects, what was clear to us was that we had to analyze what had been the first errors in the pandemic. For what? To take those lessons learned and be able to be prepared for the next pandemic, health emergency, biological war, hybrid war that has to do with health.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Dolors MONTSERRAT (EPP, ES), Rapporteur, - And above all, what reinforces the report is that we put patients and European citizens at the center of this report. How do we call for the creation of the European Union for Health, where we have to protect healthcare professionals so that when a pandemic comes they will never be unprotected again. So that all those European patients who suffer from cancer, who suffer from chronic diseases and neurodegenerative diseases continue in a pandemic, we continue to provide solutions to those patients and, therefore, what the report demands, which above all is a lot of research, innovation, manufacture and production of medicines in Europe to have autonomy strong strategic in Europe. Note: Don't rely so much on third countries.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Dolors MONTSERRAT (EPP, ES), Rapporteur, - And above all, we are also working on this report in the fight against cyber attacks, disinformation, fake news, which have occurred a lot during this pandemic and which has often caused citizens to have confusion. Therefore, we need to be very well prepared and fight against all kinds of disinformation.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Dolors MONTSERRAT (EPP, ES), Rapporteur, - And one very important thing that we have been demanding since the report that all national parliaments be open, that they are not closed, that precisely at a time of emergency, at a time of pandemic, it is the most important moment for national parliaments to really be open and that they can control the measures that each Member State takes.

Speaker 2	SOUNDBITE (English), Kathleen VAN BREMPT (S&D, BE), Chair of COVI Committee, - For more than one year we did a very thorough investigation with the whole of the committee into Yep. What happened during the pandemic? What was the response of the European Union and of the Commission in particular? What went wrong? What went well? What are the lessons learnt? And to do so we talked to eight commissioners to health, national health ministers to epidemiologist, to the institutions, and we also did three missions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kathleen VAN BREMPT (S&D, BE), Chair of COVI Committee, - Today we're a little bit more ready because it was also the immediate response of the commission during the pandemic. Think about the fact that here has been a new institution, has seen the light very important, but we're not yet ready at all for a new crisis, health crisis, pandemic or something similar. That's why this COVID committee report is so important. We made a full set of recommendations based on, for instance, strengthening health care, both at European level as at a national level, but also looking into who was now the victim in this pandemic, who who were the vulnerable people, mental health, youngsters, elderly people. How do we deal with that? National member states, but also at a European level? And then there's the global perspective. If anything went really wrong during the pandemic, it was the unequal access, the unaffordable access for many countries, especially in the global South, to vaccines. And we see that the difference not just in access but also in the immunity that we have today, that is unacceptable. That gives strength to a lot of polarisation in the world and we're already in a very polarised world. So that also Europe needs to take up its responsibility and we're looking forward to the negotiations on th...