PURPOSE: to establish a programme for the Union’s action in the field of health for the period 2021-2027 (EU4Health programme).
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: while Member States are responsible for their health policies, the experience gained during the COVID-19 crisis has shown the need to significantly strengthen the EU's capacity to respond effectively to major health threats. Europe needs to give higher priority to health, to have health systems ready to provide state-of-the-art care and to be prepared to deal with epidemics and other unpredictable health threats, in line with the International Health Regulations (IHR).
The Commission proposes that an ambitious stand-alone programme, called the EU4Health Programme, is the key instrument to implement this strategy.
The new programme will be essential to ensure that the EU remains the healthiest region in the world, that it has all possible tools to address health challenges at national and European level and that it is ready to respond to any new and emerging health threats that may endanger the population of the EU.
CONTENT: the proposed Regulation aims to establish a new programme for EU action in the field of health, entitled ‘EU4Health Programme’ (EU4Health) for the period 2021-2027.
General objectives
The Programme shall pursue the following general objectives:
(1) protect people in the Union from serious cross-border threats to health;
(2) improve the availability in the Union of medicines, medical devices and other crisis relevant products, contribute to their affordability, and support innovation;
(3) strengthen health systems and the healthcare workforce, including by digital transformation and by increased integrated and coordinated work among the Member States, sustained implementation of best practice and data sharing, to increase the general level of public health.
From the point of view of recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, the Programme should help to ensure that the EU is better prepared to deal with future health threats that would affect all or a large part of its territory.
The Programme shall:
- support Member States in the transition to better preparedness and the reinforcement of their health systems and support them in achieving the health-related United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
- set out key action areas such as improvement of national health systems, measures against communicable and non-communicable diseases, availability and affordability of medicines and other crisis relevant products;
- address inequalities by benchmarking, providing support and closing identified gaps between countries, regions, population groups and citizens;
- provide tools for enhanced solidarity in preparedness and crisis response, as well as in finding common ground to improve prevention and in addressing non-communicable diseases, and in particular cancer, and for better coordinating between different policies, tools and financial instruments;
- contribute to tackling the negative impact of climate change and environmental degradation on human health;
- support actions to enable the Commission to complement the necessary regulatory framework and contribute to addressing the significant structural needs identified in the COVID-19 crisis.
Implementation
The Programme shall be implemented through direct or indirect management and shall make use of the most commonly used spending mechanisms of the Union budget, including public procurement, prizes and grants.
Funding for health under the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the period 2021-2027 includes several instruments such as the European Social Fund plus (ESF+), the European Regional Development Fund, the Horizon Europe Programme, the Digital Europe Programme and the Interconnection in Europe 2 mechanism.
Working across programmes and sharing objectives between strategies will be key to channelling health funds between strategies and supporting the achievement of their objectives more effectively than before.
Proposed budget
The total budget allocated to the programme shall amount to EUR 10 397 614 000 (in current prices) for the period 2021-2027:
- EUR 1 946 614 000 shall derive from heading 5 ‘Resilience, Security and Defence’ of the MFF for the period 2021-2027;
- EUR 8 451 000 000 shall derive from proceeds of the EU Recovery Instrument, constituting external assigned revenues.