Debate: Programme for the Union's action in the field of health for the period -
Date: THURSDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 2020
Speaker: Cristian-Silviu Buşoi
Country: Poland
Language: EN

The COVID-19 crisis has clearly proven the European Union’s need for well-defined and adequately financed policy instruments. Moreover, with the rising expectation from our citizens, from the Union and from us, the policymakers, in the field of health – in particular now, given the current crisis – I am proud to witness that Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen, and especially Commissioner Kyriakides, have delivered both on citizens’ expectations and on addressing the challenges we are facing. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you, Commissioner, in the plenary of this House. The EU4Health programme will stand as the 4th health programme of the Union as a separate instrument for the 2021-2027 period. As a direct consequence of COVID-19, a stand-alone programme was proposed aimed at strengthening EU health systems and health care with an initial robust budget of EUR 9.4 billion. Compared to the 3rd programme for health, the EU4Health programme will deliver on many more actions to support Member States in the field of health and complement their efforts in reforming their health systems to become more resilient. As the rapporteur, when drafting the initial report, I emphasised the importance of the fact that the EU4Health programme is more than just a response to the COVID-19 crisis and it should deliver not only on short-term crisis management, but also on long-term objectives in ensuring the development of strong and resilient health systems in the Member States, and should address long-term challenges such as cancer, the burden of chronic diseases, and of course, mental health and ageing, vaccine hesitancy and equal access during medicine shortages.  One of the top priorities I had as rapporter was cancer and the EU4 Health Programme will strengthen the European Union’s fight against cancer with concrete actions to address the lack of screening, early diagnosis and access to treatment and care and in synergy with the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.  Another priority for us, the European Parliament team working on this file, was to digitalise health care, in particular through the creation and application of European e—health records and support for the creation and use of the future European health data space platform.  The programme will not only deliver on fighting cancer, but also on digitalisation and forthcoming worrying realities – future pandemics and health threats – by working in synergy with other programmes, instruments and funds like the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, Horizon Europe, and especially the mission for cancer, the Digital Agenda and the RRF (Recovery and Resilience Fund). After the vote in committee, we clearly showed that the European Parliament stands for improving the health of our citizens by health promotion and a person-centred approach to address communicable and non-communicable diseases, with a focus on chronic diseases, early screening, prevention, future development of European reference networks, addressing vaccine hesitancy, shortage of medicines and health inequalities. Therefore, I am looking forward to the vote today in the plenary and I expect to have a clear and strong mandate to start the negotiations. Regarding the budget, the envelope was cut by EUR 1.7 billion in July and in the committee we restored the amount completely to show that we aim for an increase, and with this commitment we are here today in the plenary. An agreement was reached this week with a major increase up to EUR 5.1 billion for health compared to the cut in July, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank my party, the PPE, and to thank the European Parliament negotiating team for their support. This increase is a triumph for all of us.  Compared with the 3rd health programme, we have a robust budget that will come in support of Member States. This budget will be able to complement Member States’ efforts and national programmes, and in synergy with other instruments will deliver on improving the wellbeing of our citizens by addressing health inequalities, strengthening health care systems, support for digitalisation of health care through the European e-health record and the European health data space. And of course, what was extremely important and I mentioned earlier, last but not least, really fight cancer.  I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues, the shadow rapporteurs, for their work. It was an extraordinary team, very dedicated and I’m really grateful, colleagues, for your support and collaboration. We succeeded on a fast-track to deliver what will be the most ambitious and well-funded health programme of the Union to date. I’m really grateful and I’m grateful to the Commission for all their efforts and the good cooperation. I’m looking forward to a successful vote tomorrow and a very interesting debate today, and this will be a starting point for what will be a European Union for health, with real achievements, in order to respond to European citizens’ expectations.