According to a leaked draft of the EU's strategic agenda seen by Euraactive, the European Council will not consider health as a priority for the next five years.
The EU's strategic agenda will define Europe's priorities for the 2024-2029 term and provide guidance to EU institutions. It is due to be adopted by the 27 heads of state and government at the European Council meeting on 27 and 28 June.
The internal document, dated June 12, focuses on the geopolitical challenges facing the EU's security and defence, but health issues are barely mentioned.
“It is shocking that health is not mentioned in the leaked EU Strategy Document 2024/2029,” Portuguese MEP Sara Cerdas (S&D) responded on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday (14 June).
Health is mentioned only twice in the document and is subsumed within larger files on defense and artificial intelligence (AI).
The first, health, comes in the context of upcoming threats for the EU to “strengthen resilience, preparedness and crisis response capacities”.
The sentence appears in the same paragraph as a “collective response to cyber and hybrid welfare” and combating “terrorism and violent extremism.”
“It is a bit surprising and worrying that leaders seem to have already forgotten the horror of the last pandemic, as well as the health-related risks we face from climate change and man-made hazardous substances such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS),” Finnish MEP Nils Torvalds (Renew) told EuraActive.
Secondly, healthcare is seen as one of the “sensitive sectors and key technologies of the future”, alongside defence, space and AI, and the EU will build its own capabilities in this field in order to “reduce harmful dependencies” and “not undermine our open markets”.
German MEP Peter Liese told Euraactive that health was a “priority” for the EPP (what does EPP stand for) over the next five years. “There is a lot we can do, including with our limited powers, to concretely improve people's lives. It's a shame that the parliament is not focusing on health,” he added.
Changing priorities
The draft stands in stark contrast to the Security Council agenda for 2019-2024, which calls for “adequate social protection; […] High levels of consumer protection and food standards, and good access to healthcare.”
It also contrasts sharply with the Council's conclusions on the future of the European Health Union, published on 29 May and due to be approved at a meeting of the Council for Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSCO) on Friday (21 June).
The Council noted the recommendations on the incentive cluster in the medicines package and vaccine-preventable cancers and encouraged the next Commission to prioritise health.
“I find it hard to believe that health is missing from the Council's draft programme. If the Council adopts the programme without health, it will miss out on a crucial part for the safety and security of Europeans,” Finnish MEP Silvia Modig (Left) told EuraActive.
[Edited by Rajnish Singh]
Read more at Euractiv
