During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels (08-11 March 2021), MEPs debate on the programme for the Union's action in the field of health for the period 2021-2027 (“EU4Health Programme”): Opening statement by Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (PPE, RO), rapporteur, by Nicolae ŞTEFĂNUȚĂ (Renew, RO) BUDG and by Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Brussels

statement

debate

plenary session

healthcare safety (T)

BUŞOI, Cristian-Silviu (EPP, RO)

ŞTEFĂNUȚĂ, Nicolae (Greens/EFA, RO)

KYRIAKIDES, Stella (CY, EC)

Coronavirus outbreak (T)

EU4Health Programme 2021-2027 (T)

Programme for the Union's action in the field of health for the period 2021-2027 (“EU4Health Programme”): Opening statements

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), Dear President thank you, Dear commissioner Stella Kyriakides, Dear colleagues, the crisis has clearly proven European Union's need for a well-defined and adequately financed policy instruments in general and in particular in the health area.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), EU4health programme is not only an appropriate response to the current covid crisis, but also comes to respond to the expectations of citizens. As many Eurobarometer as in the recent years shows us. At least 70 percent of our population ask and expect more and bolder EU intervention in the health area.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), Also, the new health programme will deliver on better fighting against long term strategic challenges, cancer, antimicrobial resistance, vaccine hesitancy, medicine shortages. For this, I would like to take the opportunity and thank Commissioner Kyriakides and President von der Leyen for putting the proposal to have a stand alone programme forward.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), I would also like to thank Director General Gallina and Director Hudson for their support and excellent advice. Furthermore, we would not succeed to finish the negotiations last year without the strong involvement of Minister Jens Spahn and the support and work of the German presidency.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), I would also like to take the opportunity to thank my colleagues, the shadow rapporteurs, for their work and all colleagues, which contributed to with amendments and involvement for their support and collaboration. And I thank, a special thanks to Peter Liese, an EPP colleague.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), Together, we have achieved not only to amend, vote, debate, negotiate in less than half one year the 4th programme in the field of health, but also secured a very important budget of 5.1 billion euros. The EU4health will stand as the 4th programme of the union as a separate instrument for the 2021-2027 period, and compared to the 3rd programme for health, the EU4health will deliver on much more actions to support member states in the field of health and complement their efforts in reforming their systems to become more resilient.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), What are the main objectives, EU4health programme is more than just a response to the covid-19 crisis. It will deliver not only on short-term crisis management but also on long term objectives. EU4health will strengthen the European Union's fight against cancer, a very important priority for me personally and for my political group EPP, but also for so many colleagues with concrete actions to address the lack of screening, early diagnosis and access to treatment and care, and in synergy with Europe's beating cancer plan.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), EU4health will digitalise health care in particular through the creation and application of the European e-health record and support the creation and use of the Health Data Space Future Platform. EU4health will work in synergies with other programmes, instruments and funds. The EU beating cancer plan, Horizon Europe and its specific mission for cancer, The Digital Agenda and the RRF.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), EU4health will encourage member states to invest more in health promotion and disease prevention, especially for chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes. And we focus on a very important Medium-Term objective. And for me, representing Romania, this is extremely important that health inequalities must be reduced.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), Despite all the efforts done and made by the EU in the past few years and the progress made in the health status and life expectancy, there are still unequal access to health services at EU level. And some of these inequalities are widening not only across countries but also across population groups within each country.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), The EU4health will support actions for training more health staff, address resistance to vaccination in the EU and bring back the production of medicines to Europe. EU4health will allocate funds for the establishment of a union reserve of essential crisis or relevant products, and of medical and healthcare staff in synergy and complementarity with other union policies and instruments.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), The final agreement introduced also ceilings, a minimum for health promotion and disease prevention, 20 %, a ceiling for stockpiling,12.5%, for procurement complementing national stockpiling of essential crises relevant products. One for global commitments and initiatives 12.5% and the last one for administrative expenses 8%. And this is something that European Parliament insisted in order to ensure a fair balance and to have a very good budget, which are going in the right direction.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), I would like to once again emphasise that this programme will be extremely important to deliver on what will be our future challenges: cancer, communicable and non-communicable diseases, antimicrobial resistance, mental health and ageing, vaccine hesitancy, unequal access.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI (EPP, RO), And we'd like to reduce inequalities made between shortages and of course, at the same time will be better prepared with the help of this programme for emerging technologies. Dear colleagues, thank you very much. Together, we have delivered both on citizens' expectations and on addressing the challenges we are facing. Thank you so much.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, President, honourable members. This is an important day. It is the end of a journey and the beginning of another one. I am proud to be standing here today in front of you and to discuss and hopefully adopt the EU4health programme.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, People across the EU have expected us to act as policy makers, as public health officials, as their democratically elected representatives. They expected us to act to address the weaknesses in Europe's health systems, which became even more apparent in this pandemic but to ensure that we do much more in the future in every area of health.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, With the EU4health programme, we have the tools at hand to make long lasting changes. Together, we are sending a clear message that we need more Europe in the area of public health, targeted investments to enhance our crisis preparedness and to build stronger, more resilient and more accessible health systems are key.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, That message comes loud and clear in the EU4health programme, which represents how would dare to say, a new era in health policy. This programme is more than a reaction to the pandemic. I want to thank this parliament for its support for this ambitious programme. Thanks to you, this budget was increased to 5.1 billion.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, I want particularly to thank MEP Busoi as well as all the shadow rapporteurs for their excellent collaboration. But every single colleague in the European Parliament. Your contributions were instrumental in reaching the political agreement in December along with the German presidency. And thanks here need to be said also to Minister Spahn.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, This agreement, reached in record time, illustrates the power of collaboration and our potential to deliver concrete benefits across the union. Honourable Members the EU4Health Programme will support the fight against cross-border health threats, will reinforce Europe's health systems, will drive the digitalisation of health, and will strengthen disease prevention.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, We plan to structure the first EU for health programme for 2021 along these four health strands with a crosscutting priority on cancer to support Europe's beating cancer plan. And yes, we can make a difference. The gravity of the health crisis demands the swift adoption of the EU4health regulation.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, We are determined that the first ever EU4health Annual Work Programme will be ready for adoption as soon as possible so that we can roll out our EU wide actions later in 2021. I look forward to presenting to the Parliament the proceedings with the EU4health steering group and the consultation with all stakeholders.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Close collaboration is what has gotten us to this point, and only if we continue in this spirit, we can deliver the health programme that Europeans expect, deserve and of course need. The pandemic has taught us harsh lessons and has highlighted the areas where we need to take decisive action. Knowing now what we know, we cannot go back to what was the old normal.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Indeed, we are determined to respond in a way that looks to the future and develops concrete benefits and protection to the citizens. This is exactly why the Commission adopted in November last year a package to build a stronger European Health Union. This package includes an updated regulation on serious cross-border health threats and proposals to reinforce our two key agencies, ECDC and EMA, the European Medicines Agency and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, This package is under discussion with the member states as well as in the ENVI Committee, and we need to do all we can to ensure that these proposals become a reality. And again, I count on your support. We will present our proposal on a health emergency preparedness authority HERA to strengthen access and availability of medical countermeasures later this year.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, In the meantime, we are already ready to roll out the first actions under the HERA incubator, which will be supporting the production and delivery of adapted or novel covid-19 vaccines. We know that speed is of essence and we have to urgently anticipate and respond to the growing threat of coronavirus variants.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Honourable members, I would say to many of you over the last 1.5 years, dear friends, I do count on your continued support in the implementation of the EU4health programme and in the implementation of moving forward to the European Health Union proposals. Together, these proposals will ensure that the EU is healthier, more resilient and better prepared.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, And will implement implementing these actions. We will ensure that European citizens know that for each and every one of us, health is our priority. So let us do this together. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicolae ŞTEFĂNUȚĂ (Renew, RO), Madam Commissioner Kyriakides, today we face a historic vote, a new European health programme, and we really need it too. Diseases are identical, but the treatment that European citizens receive, however, differs. Today, we have an opportunity to rectify treatment inequalities in the continent.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicolae ŞTEFĂNUȚĂ (Renew, RO), Yesterday, an article on intensive care in the hospital in my city of Sibiu shocked and pained Romania in Europe, while in Belgium, the survival rate for patients with covid-19 diseases in intensive care is currently 65%. In Romania, that survival rate for those diseases in ICU was barely 25%.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicolae ŞTEFĂNUȚĂ (Renew, RO), Now, in Europe, we cannot fair to share the most successful treatments programmes more efficiently with each other. We cannot fail to support the hospital in Sibiu and others like it so that we are not sending hospital doctors into the frontline of the fighting against covid. We cannot allow a situation where two twin Cities, Sibiu and Luxembourg, out of every 10 citizens in intensive care, 7 Luxembourg citizens will recover, but only 3 in Sibiu.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicolae ŞTEFĂNUȚĂ (Renew, RO), That's why it's so important what we do this money. We need to be strategic. We need to think about it from the beginning to the end of this money. We must consider it as humanity's last reserve because it's not just the seeds of our future healthier, but also a symbol of the credibility of the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicolae ŞTEFĂNUȚĂ (Renew, RO), EU4Health is the first robust European health programme. The member states were very late to understand that diseases don't stop at borders and we need solidarity and cooperation. As the BUDG Committee rapporteur, I saw this when we saw a cut from 7 to 1.7 billion and we managed to get it back up to 5.1 billion euros.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicolae ŞTEFĂNUȚĂ (Renew, RO), It wasn't easy and it wasn't enough, but it was very important to do that. I fought alongside the Véronique Trillet-Lenoir and Cristian-Silviu Busoi, to ensure that some of the money should go on stockpiling medicines, which means that we will have 12.5% of the budget spent on medical stockpiling.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicolae ŞTEFĂNUȚĂ (Renew, RO), With the money that we have, we must make hospitals safer places, free of infection. We must prevent cancer. We must be better prepared for future pandemic contingencies. In Romania, we say health is the dearest thing, dear, not just in the sense of expensive like in French, but also precious or beloved. If Europe wants to be loved, it must help its citizens to enjoy their health. Thank you.