Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality, Ms Lahbib, on 20 July 2026, answered a parliamentary question from ECR MEP Claudiu-Richard Târziu, detailing the EU's concrete steps to bolster pandemic preparedness while stressing that national authorities retain primary responsibility for health policy. The answer aims to reassure that lessons from COVID-19 have been learned, but also deflects concerns about future measures by deferring to Member States' obligations under the Treaties.
The response, which contains no new announcements, instead points to existing legislative and institutional frameworks adopted in 2022. Lahbib highlighted the establishment of the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) as a Commission service, the Council's Emergency Framework Regulation (2022/2372) for ensuring supply of medical countermeasures, and the new Regulation on serious cross-border threats to health (2022/2371). The latter introduced a cycle of Member State reporting on prevention, preparedness and response (PPR) capacities, followed by assessments by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
On the question of an up-to-date appraisal of national health systems, Lahbib noted that the Commission will adopt the second State of Health Preparedness Report later this year, based on Member State reporting and ECDC's Public Health Emergency Preparedness Assessments (PHEPAs). The first such report was published in December 2023. The upcoming report will cover management of medical countermeasures, health emergency management, and surge capacity.
Regarding guarantees that future health measures will respect proportionality, transparency, and fundamental rights, Lahbib did not offer new commitments. Instead, she reiterated that under Article 168(7) TFEU, Member States retain full responsibility for defining their health policy and organising health services, and that it is national authorities that bear primary responsibility for ensuring measures respect dignity, human rights, and fundamental freedoms. This answer signals that the Commission sees its role as coordinating and supporting, not overriding, national sovereignty in health emergencies.
The policy orientation is one of incremental institutional strengthening rather than a new centralisation of powers. The Commission is relying on the 2022 legal framework and the upcoming preparedness report to demonstrate progress. No new legislative proposals or numerical targets were announced. Institutional follow-up will focus on the publication of the State of Health Preparedness Report later in 2026, which will provide the next benchmark for assessing national capacities.