William SLEATH

What William SLEATH has said (4)

• “Thank you very much. Absolutely. Lots of lots of really kind of pertinent and and interesting issues raised. I'll, um, I'll make a start. And then I'm sure Daphne will will will compliment maybe on some of them. Forward looking side as well. Okay. Um, what was the biggest challenge for for her to start off with? I think it was that because of the urgent need to put her in place, it landed in an existing landscape. And that meant, inevitably, that that there was always going to be a degree of overlap and a degree of, of coordination challenge with other bodies and institutions, institutions. It meant, for example, that in using existing budget programs, it had to follow all their rules, because that's what the legal basis of the process of the programs was. It meant that the existing role of, of, of agencies and bodies like the Health Security Committee was there and, and it had to find its place in it. But that doesn't mean that there wasn't a really key role where Hera filled a gap doing something which was not done before, which was to address all that we learnt very early on on the pandemic. I mean, you remember the issues about access to masks and, and, and issues like that, medical counter measures. It's not only vaccines, it's it, it's it's other products. It's Its medicines, its services as well. It covers a large range of, of, uh, measures. And all of that was found to be a something where there were clear shortcomings in the way that we could access that for Europeans and be a role for the EU level in countering that.”
  Joint EU procurement of medicines
• “Um, I mean, there is a lot of emphasis there on being able to target funding to, um, priorities. Uh, and crisis and preparedness is, is a theme which, uh, comes out strongly in, in that context uh, as well. Um, also in, in terms of flexibility, I mean, I think the health budget is, is interesting because of course, when we agreed the budget seven years ago, uh, I mean, the outturn for, for health in terms of real spending from the EU budget has been hugely different. So I think it's a classic example of why the case for flexibility is is a very strong one to enable you to to adapt as things, uh, as things change, but also to, to kind of keep focus on those priorities and, and keep focus on providing added value so that as we have the MFF debate, as, as everyone knows, the the money is tight, there is not um, there is for, for um, reasons both of legacy and and in terms of, uh, squeezes on public financing in general at the moment, it's not going to be easy. But if if we stick to those those ideas of, um, prioritization and retaining flexibility rather than trying to pin everything down in advance, uh, then then there would be, I'm sure, opportunities to ensure that that the future financing which would be called upon by Hera would be a substantial priority in the overall picture as well. Exactly.”
  Size of EU budget · Conditions to access EU budget
• “Hera contributed to coherence with the broader EU health preparedness and crisis response framework, ensuring coordination in different ways. It offers added value in the EU health security framework, contributing to EU leadership in the field by filling the gap at EU level. Identified at the time of the pandemic, drawing on the scale and versatility possible at EU level to effectively complement member state efforts on medical countermeasures and Herod's mission also remains relevant. Pandemics and other cross-border health threats can no longer be assumed to be rare events. Indeed, globalization and climate change have increased their probability and frequency. So the review sets out how Hera has found a place to provide added value in this institutional setting. It also identifies a number of areas where further work and clarity is needed to make the most of the combined potential to better protect the health of the citizens. Some of this would come through improved coherence between the Commission's work on medical countermeasures and broader health security. So there is a need to reinforce synergies and enhance cooperation, to increase effective interaction with other actors in the health security framework. Flexibility also needs to be ensured in Herod's work in the area of Paradise, to address future challenges that cannot be foreseen at this stage, as happened, of course, with critical medicines.”
  Joint EU procurement of medicines
• “Thank goodness that we have had to trigger the crisis mode for all of this. And when you have the crisis mode, as we saw, of course, during the pandemic, there is a huge premium on. Being able to act quickly. And that means that that you need access to your tools. You need access to your decision making. That's not something where if you have a separate body, it would be a lot harder to to move an act, particularly in those in crisis situations. So that was something that that came into our mind as well in terms of I'm sure uh, that that is an issue. Um, again, uh, which, uh, will be looked at and you may well, um, talk about with, with the commissioner as well. I mean, uh, the commission at least has, has, um, horizontal rules. You may consider them to be imperfect, but, I mean, there are clear rules there, uh, that the commission has in place. And, uh, you know what? They are so, so, um, I think that there are some advantages, even in the transparency side as well. Um, and then on, on, on the budget, uh, and the future funding it, it is, of course, uh, as the committee knows very well, we're in the course of a debate on, on the future funding and the MFF. Uh, you may have had the opportunity to look at the communication which the commission adopted in March.”
  Transparency requirements of EU institutions · Size of EU budget