Debate: Cohesion policy: reducing healthcare disparities and enhancing cross-border health cooperation
Date: MONDAY, 7 MARCH 2022
Speaker: Mariya Gabriel
Language: EN

The Commission recognises the problem of territorial disparities in healthcare across Europe. The pandemic has shown us that we need to strengthen the resilience of our health systems. The age cohesion report has highlighted the problem of unequal access to healthcare services, especially in less developed regions.  Cohesion’s pandemic emergency response is short EUR 14.6 billion under the Corona Response Initiative and ReactEU combined for health care investments and emergency measures in the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes the purchases of over 13 000 ventilators, 12 000 hospital beds, financial assistance to purchase over three billion items of personal protective equipment and other medical equipment. It includes support for vaccination and testing.  Beyond emergency response, Europe needs continuous and increased investment in the capacity and efficiency of health systems – in facilities, personnel and supplies. In the 21-27 cohesion programmes, support for health services and infrastructure continues to be a key priority. Innovation is a driver for the development of the health sector. As you know, health is a growth field, and cohesion policy provided early seed funding for BioNTech and will continue to invest in innovation in this sector.  We also need comprehensive health, social and economic policies in order to ensure equal access to healthcare for all citizens and all regions. We must also anticipate future challenges and future infrastructure needs as Europe ages and we face population decline and brain drain.  Cohesion policy cannot do this alone. We need all available tools to tackle disparities in medical care and shortages in the workforce, so we are doing all we can to promote synergies between cohesion policy and other European funding programmes and instruments, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the EU4Health programme, the Horizon Europe programme, the digital Europe programme and the InvestEU programme.  The Commission is working to ensure that synergies between all these instruments are fully exploited, with the requisite focus on regional needs and special considerations. The pandemic has also shown how fragile our borders are and how crucial it is to have good cross-border cooperation and coordination when a crisis hits. Through Interreg, we have a long tradition of investment in Europe’s border regions. Support continues with about EUR 8 billion for 97 cooperation programmes to be adopted this year, including under the new stand on outermost regions.  Today, we have a unique opportunity. Exceptional levels of funding, coupled with the lessons of the pandemic. This is the moment to improve our healthcare systems, and this is the moment to tackle regional inequalities in access to healthcare.  We will continue working closely with Member States in order to tackle the healthcare challenges in European regions together in line with the Union’s health, social and cohesion policy priorities. We welcome your timely report and we look forward to working with you on these issues.