In a written answer on 3 July 2026, Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, on behalf of the European Commission, stated that the EU has not received any signals of critical shortages of medicines resulting from the conflict in the Middle East, and that the situation appears stable with minimal disruption to transport and no impact on manufacturing capacity. The answer was given to a question by Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos (NI), who had linked shortages and price increases to the war and criticised EU pharmaceutical policy as profit-driven. Várhelyi emphasised that improving availability, accessibility and affordability of medicines is an important objective for the Commission, and pointed to two recent legislative initiatives: the agreed revision of the general pharmaceutical legislation and the proposed Critical Medicines Act, which aims to strengthen supply chain resilience and support manufacturing within the Union.
However, the answer contained no new concrete proposals or commitments beyond these existing measures. On pricing and reimbursement, Várhelyi noted that these remain Member State responsibilities under EU treaty rules, respecting the Transparency Directive. The answer thus reaffirms the Commission's existing policy direction of boosting EU production and regulatory cooperation, without announcing new emergency controls or price regulation as requested by the MEP. The Commission's stance leaves pricing decisions with national authorities and relies on recently agreed legislation to address shortages, rather than intervening directly in the market.
This approach impacts pharmaceutical companies, which may face new supply obligations but avoid price caps; EU patients, who may benefit from improved supply resilience but not from immediate price reductions; national health authorities, which retain pricing power but must implement new EU rules; and the European Medicines Agency, which continues its monitoring role.