Opening Remarks by Vice-President Schinas at the Press Conference on the EU4Health Programme - Hoofdinhoud

Following yesterday's unprecedented EU response to the unprecedented situation we are faced with, we are here today with Commissioner Kyriakidou to present you the new and self-standing programme on Health.

One of the basic lessons of this crisis is that no one can claim to be able to handle this type of situation alone without European and international cooperation.

The pandemic showed us - in an emphatic way - that nothing is off limit, everything can happen.

The crisis hit us all symmetrically, with no discrimination.

But at the same time, we were faced with an asymmetry of expectations, given the limited EU responsibilities on Health issues.

And today we are making the first decisive step to bridge this gap of expectations.

In our common response, we have to be innovative and tackle the challenges in an efficient way that goes beyond the strict and limited boundaries of policies.

The diagnosis is crystal clear: We should develop a crisis management instrument and strengthen our preparedness and resilience for the future.

We are strengthening the areas where Europe has traditionally been weak or with limited competences, like for Health.

It is emblematic that the new EU4Health Programme comes together with Europe's response to the crisis that was caused by COVID-19: next Generation EU also makes it clear that we will work on concrete outcomes in the area of health; we will invest and we will make sure we enhance our health systems so that we are as prepared as possible.

The new EU4Health Programme we are presenting today represents the most explicit and tangible reply to COVID-19: It is a health instrument to address a health crisis!

But not only that. It also addresses the very first lesson learned from the pandemic: the priority of public health.

And with the COVID-19 it became more justified than ever to have a separate instrument on Health with 3 main novelties and 3+1 objectives.

Novelties on different fronts:

First, in terms of approach. The MFF proposal on the negotiation table integrated the existing Health instrument in the broader European Social Fund Plus, meant to become the core programme for investing in people. Now, we come with a separate, new and self-standing programme on Health.

Second, in terms of ambition. The new programme will have a robust financial envelop of 9.4 billion €, compared to the current 413 million € (for the whole period 2014 - 2020), which was just pocket money.

We are increasing the total envelop by over 23 times! This ambition speaks by itself on the priority we want to give to public Health.

Third, in terms of scope. The new programme will support ambitious actions to be better prepared to Health threats, improve EU strategic capacity on medical products and strengthen national Health systems. This will obviously be done in full respect of Treaty competences to better support Member States and better coordinate at EU level. We are not changing the Treaty; we are fully exploiting the possibilities it offers.

Before passing the floor to Stella who will present the concrete actions of the Programme let me elaborate on our 3 + 1 main objectives:

First, we have to protect people in the EU from serious cross-border threats to health;

Second, it is our moral obligation to improve the availability in the Union of medicines, medical devices and other crisis relevant products, contribute to their affordability, and support innovation;

And third we want to strengthen systems and the healthcare workforce, including by digital transformation and to increase the general level of public health.

Finally, this new Health Programme could be an opportunity to step up our competences in Health issues. An issue that could be debated in the context of the forthcoming work on the Future of Europe Conference.

The time to put European public health at the front line of our policy making is definitely more urgent than ever.