Sundheds- og Ældreudvalget 2019-20
SUU Alm.del Bilag 593
Offentligt
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Europe in the pandemic: research and innovation for a resilient health
system
Statement of the Chair
The Interparliamentary Conference entitled
Europe in the pandemic: research and innovation
for a resilient health system was held on 7
September 2020 as part of the parliamentary
dimension of the German Presidency of the Council. Because of the exceptional circumstances
created by the COVID-19 pandemic, it took the form of a video conference. The participants were
Members of Parliament from 21 EU member states, Members of the European Parliament and, as
observers, Members of Parliament from Norway and the United Kingdom. The conference
assessed the
current state of play regarding the impact of the pandemic on the member states’
health systems and considered proposals for closer cooperation in the health sector, fresh ideas
for the promotion of health research and ways of managing crises with the aid of digital
instruments.
We, the conference presidency,
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express our solidarity with infected people throughout the world and with the hardest-hit
countries; we declare our deep respect for the medical personnel and other staff in the
various health systems; we emphasize the importance of protecting public health and of
resilient health systems and are also aware that national parliaments bear a large share of
responsibility for shaping their countries’ health systems;
acknowledge the effective response, within the framework of the WHO recommendations,
of the member states and the EU institutions, especially the Commission, to the outbreak
of the COVID-19 pandemic; we advocate even closer local, national, European and
international cooperation in the areas of health and research, from which prevention and
the quality of medical care in all countries can benefit; solidarity and sovereignty should
be the key concepts underlying this cooperation, which should also serve to facilitate
future access to vaccines;
regard it as core political task for the EU and its member states to ensure, even in crises,
that the population is supplied at all times with essential medicinal products and medical
equipment; to improve the coordination of responses to pandemic developments within
the EU; we need more cooperation and better information exchange between member
states;
believe that increased use of digital technology, leading to better and faster data exchange
and ultimately to a common European Health Data Space, are essential and should be
targeted so that infection events can be identified; this also entails achieving compatibility
between the various coronavirus apps; the potential and the utility of such apps depends
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7 September 2020
 SUU, Alm.del - 2019-20 - Bilag 593: Opfølgning på det interparlamentariske møde den 7. september 2020 om pandemien
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Europe in the pandemic: research and innovation for a
resilient health system
Statement of the Presidency
heavily on whether the member states succeed in harnessing the existing technological
solutions and in cooperating more effectively in this area;
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are convinced that the extension of testing and the assessment of infection risks are the
first and crucial response to cross-border health hazards; the way in which infection
statistics are treated must, however, be standardised on the basis of common criteria; for
this reason, we advocate better preparation and coordination of joint crisis responses and
support a reinforcement of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
(ECDC) and its integration into an EU-wide reporting system;
emphasize the need for more promotion of research and innovation; the EU and its
member states can achieve more by pooling resources; if this is done, more benefit can be
derived from the polarity between the focus on research excellence in some countries and
the focus on needs-based research in others: importance is attached in this context to the
ability to exchange research data in a trustworthy environment; more should be done to
promote communication on the part of scientists so that disinformation can be
counteracted; similarly, evaluative epidemiological research must receive due attention;
endorse the calls made by scientists for a percentage of European research funding to be
invested in the Global South, particularly in the training of scientists and especially of
medical staff;
agree that, besides a European strategy for the promotion of research, all EU member states
should also have their own national strategies so that, as originally laid down in the
Lisbon Strategy, over and above EU research funding, each member state must devote an
amount corresponding to 3% of its GDP to research; it is more urgent than ever that this
target be pursued, in some cases with the assistance of the private sector;
welcome the fact that the EU rapidly made resources available for COVID-19 research in
the spring of 2020 but regret that the Heads of State or Government have cut the planned
funding increase for the EU4health programme and for the EU research and innovation
investment programme Horizon Europe in the course of the Next Generation EU recovery
instrument; we therefore support the calls from the European Parliament, made in
connection with the forthcoming deliberations on the multiannual financial framework,
for an increase in the resources made available for health research and for research in
general; at the same time, national parliaments are called on to ensure that 3% of GDP is
devoted to research in the member states.
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For the conference presidency
Erwin Rüddel
Chair of the Committee on Health
Dr Ernst Dieter Rossmann
Manuel Höferlin
Chair of the Committee on Education, Chair of the Committee on the Digital
Research and Technology Assessment
Agenda