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Brussels – On Tuesday, the EU member states approved a general approach to the Critical Medicines Act and also discussed the preparation of the long-term budget from the perspective of healthcare interests. This was stated by the Minister of Health of the Slovak Republic Kamil Šaško (Hlas-SD) after the meeting of the EU Council for Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSCO) in Brussels, where he supported the production of critical medicines on the territory of the EU, the TASR correspondent reports.
Kamil Šaško stated that the ministers discussed several important topics, the most significant of which was the approval of the general approach of the member states to the EU Critical Medicines Act. According to him, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic revealed certain systemic problems that exist within Europe, especially regarding the availability of critical molecules.
“We have set a specific number of such critical molecules, there are more than two hundred of them and that number will be dynamically adjusted. The point is to ensure that in every case, in every corner of the EU, there is an even, balanced distribution of such medicines. This should not be based only on price, but also on the sharing of information, so that the European Commission as a central body can centrally procure and distribute medicines,” he explained.
According to him, Tuesday’s discussions of the ministers contributed to the fact that cooperation has moved significantly forward and that the EU as a whole will be much better prepared for any further critical periods of a pandemic.
The Minister of Health emphasized that to secure critical medicines the EU must not be dependent on their import, but must ensure their own production and thus reduce external dependence. “We must take every step to strengthen self-sufficiency and competitiveness. That is exactly what this is about, to support domestic European production through the supply and manufacture of critical medicines,” he said.
In this context, he pointed out that his department on Monday (1 December) presented new legislation regarding medicines and added that many of the measures discussed by the EU Council in Brussels are also reflected in the domestic pro-reform legislation. “I expect that part of what we talked about here today will also be transformed into our legislation,” he added.
The minister recalled that the Brussels debates also touched on the preparation of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) after 2027, and according to him, it is necessary to prevent the area of health and healthcare from being “lost” in some broader, perhaps more economic topics in the future long-term budget. “We must not allow that, and we at home in Slovakia, and I say this completely openly, will try to push for this in the negotiations. So that a larger part of this package is directed towards the development of healthcare and its infrastructure, because from the standard EU funds relatively little goes into healthcare at home. I would like to see this much better reflected in the new programming period,” Šaško said. (2 December)
“We must take every step to strengthen self-sufficiency and competitiveness. So that the supply and production of critical medicines supports domestic European production.” Kamil Šaško