Daphne VON BUXHOEVEDEN

What Daphne VON BUXHOEVEDEN has said (7)

• “So we only by by acting together can we be stronger and more effective in addressing this. And this is also something that we are looking at as part of the the medical countermeasure strategy, which falls under the broader European Health Union. Of course, when it comes to non-communicable diseases. So here again, it's not really something that falls under us. But I mean, you know, that the commissioner has been tasked by the president to step up its work on preventive health, to work on the European Cancer Plan and on tobacco specifically. And so we leave this in the trusted hands of our colleagues in DG Sante. But like everything and I don't have to convince this House, if you want to be ambitious in the years to come, you need an ambitious budget to accompany the initiatives that you would like the commission to take. And so this is something we are fighting for internally, but we will look for for the support of the Parliament, of course. And then last but not least, I think when it comes to who's responsible to take decisions, um, it's a very sensitive question. I think you all know there are various evaluations going on for the moment. There was the review of Hera. There is the review of Ecdc. Of the serious cross-border health threat regulation. And like Hans says, there will be the union prevention plans, which will be published after the summer normally and hopefully that will provide some more clarity in the health sector, specifically of who does what in times of crisis. Thank you.”
  EU measures on lifestyle-related behaviours (smoking, drinking, eating, etc.)
• “So our vision is to continue as we did now, but even better. And we are going to focus on the priority threats that we have identified, which are infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance and of course, cbrne hazards, which increases the need to strengthen our civil military cooperation, which is something we are investing in heavily for the moment in response to MEP Hauser. So, no, it's not only a vaccines that we are looking at, it's really the whole range of medical countermeasures. So diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. I gave a few vaccines example, but we are also for instance investing in the new therapeutics for the dengue disease, which is particularly relevant for the global South. Together with the Dndi, we are also investing in a new diagnostic which could be multi-purpose and easier to use, etc.. Um, how can an emergency be declared? So whereas previously it was the W.H.O. which declared and we had to wait for the W.H.O. declaration, which was one of the problems experienced during the Covid pandemic with the new serious cross-border health regulation. The EU now has the opportunity or the possibility to declare its own emergency with the help of an expert opinion of the advisory group, which has been established in response to MEP. So civil military cooperation is indeed something we are increasingly active on. We are working very closely with NATO. We are involved in the simulation exercises.”
  Relations with NATO · Antimicrobial resistance
• “Health systems per se are not in our mandate. I mean, they are member state competence and covered by our colleagues in DG Sante. However, it is clear that no hospital can be prepared if it doesn't have the right medical countermeasures at its disposal to respond to a military threat or other types of threats, which is why we are coming in from that very particular angle. Um, then I will I will be quick, um, in response to MEP pantella. So here I invest. What is it? We have a budget of €110 million, which we are spending via venture loans. So we're covering 50% of the loans and the other 50% have to come from private equity. We have signed three contracts with European SMEs. One is um, focusing on the new antimicrobial. So it's focusing on the Amr threat. Another one has been signed with the Leiden lab for a nasal spray for Covid. And the third one has been signed with Fabtech for cber and medical countermeasures. Um, so in terms of what are we doing for avian influenza? So this is something where all of the commission is working together and the agency. So Hera Santé, Ecdc and EMA, we are closely monitoring the very worrying outbreaks in the US. Quarterly reports are being issued. For the moment. The Ecdc still estimates that the risk is low for the EU.”
  Antimicrobial resistance
• “And, of course, our president has said publicly that we will respond zero for zero. So let's see where that leads us. But for the moment, those tariffs are not in place with regards to the preparedness union strategy. Yes. Um, health is in it, but it's only one of the many sectors that are covered. I think the idea is that it's really cross-sectoral across hazard approach, but it does indicate as one of its main deliverables, this medical countermeasure strategy, which is coming out in June and which will really be a document setting out a vision of what we are planning to do in the area of health, focusing on medical countermeasures. And who is the commissioner we report to it's Commissioner Labib, but of course, we report to the entire college. And then last but not least, um, in response to MEP. So yes, we are working a lot with the Global South. We have an agreement signed with African CDC. We are working closely with Paho when it comes to procurement, but also to wastewater surveillance. We are um, working a lot with our colleagues in DG Inpa who are spending €1.2 billion to increase manufacturing capacities in the Global South. We give technical advice as to which companies to work with, with technologies to invest in, etc. so that collaboration is going extremely well and I will stop here. Thank you.”
  EU Development & Humanitarian Aid
• “Yeah, I'll keep it very short because Hans-Peter covered everything. I think just on the point of the resilience of health care systems. It's indeed neither the responsibility of nor Hera, but the executive vice president who came up with in part of her mandate, ways to strengthen the human capital and the skills. And of course, we are following this very closely from a Hera perspective, because you cannot have functioning healthcare systems if you don't have two elements, the people and the products. So what Hera is doing, we are trying to make sure that medical countermeasures are available so that the doctors and the nurses can use them. But of course, if there are no doctors and nurses, no medical countermeasures will do their job. So this is something where we're working very closely with our colleagues from Employment and Santé, and also as part of our civil society forum, we have a group of civil society representatives that have issued a paper with recommendations on how to strengthen the the labour or how to address the labour shortages of the healthcare workforce. And that is something we have shared inside of the Commission as well. And we are following up on, I think, with, with regards to, to the competencies question. I mean, health, I mean, of course, it's a it's a shared responsibility. I think you all know better than me that it's all based on article 168 of the treaty of the European Union. We come in when it's a question of cross-border health threats specifically. And why is that? I think it's because we have seen and witnessed during the last years that it's more effective to work together when you are facing cross-border health threats than each country by its own, because the closure of borders has not worked.”
  Public and private sectors role in healthcare services
• “Most recently, you probably have seen we've signed a joint procurement for a pandemic influenza vaccine where we can have access to 27 million doses in case of need. And in case there is a pandemic declared by W.H.O.. Hera has also, on the international front, um responded immediately to the Mpox outbreak that we witnessed last summer where we have donated, procured and donated mpox doses to the African continent and also coordinated the Team Europe approach. In total, being able to donate over 500 million doses and thereby the EU is the largest donor in response to the outbreak of last year. We have also, together with our colleagues in the humanitarian aid. So DG echo established stockpiles covering chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear medical countermeasures. Some of them have already been deployed, for instance, to the Ukraine. And it is something we would like to continue investing in under the preparedness strategy. Last but not least, we have established a number of strategic partnerships with like minded countries. I think this is something of particular importance in the current geopolitical context that we are witnessing. So we have partnerships with the US, which we had with the US, but this is something that is currently not very active. Of course, um, with Japan, with Korea, the African CDC, the AU, and we are about to sign an agreement with Canada also, and we are in exploratory talks with Singapore in terms of upcoming Coming here are activities because there's never a time to be complacent.”
  EU Development & Humanitarian Aid
• “So it's all very concrete. And I think in response to MEP Metz, this is also one of the reasons why it was difficult to envisage us in Ecdc, which is focusing currently on, on surveillance and not on the all the other side. But of course, as William said, if things were to be reshaped, they would probably be done differently when it comes to the questions on stockpiling with the Critical Medicines Act. So there we are looking in its DG Sante and Commissioner Varhelyi in the lead at contingency stocks that companies are holding, whereas Wadhera is doing is we invest in emergency stocks, which would be held at the level of national authorities and disbursed to citizens in the case of pandemic. So both are being covered but in different areas. And for stockpiling that Hera is responsible for, there is going to be a section on it in our upcoming medical countermeasures strategy on how we intend to take it forward in the future, together with the Member States. And also, of course, there will be a dedicated stockpiling strategy announced also in the Commission letter of Commissioner Labib coming out in June or July, which will cover health, but also other sectors such as agriculture and energy, etc., in response to um MEP andriukaitis. So our vision, I think I explained a bit.”
  Public and private sectors role in healthcare services