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ladies and gentlemen,
All of us around the table today acknowledged that the combination of the high transmissibility of the Delta variant in parallel with the large vaccination gap and the easing of non-pharmaceutical interventions and personal behaviours has led us to where we are today.
We already knew that the winter would be a challenging time, and since two weeks we are following very closely the new developments relating to the Omicron variant.
While we wait for science to tell us more, we must take urgent action now. Urgent and coordinated action.
We are equipped with tools to respond quickly to the developing situation, starting with the vaccines.
We must urgently use the vaccines to close the immunisation gap. We need to get as many EU citizens fully vaccinated as quickly as possible, protect more people against the most serious consequences of the virus as well as the spread of new variants.
There are still 6 Member States that have an overall vaccination rate below 55%.
Clusters or pockets of less vaccinated countries or regions is a risk for the EU as a whole. It gives breathing ground for more severe and transmissible variants. I cannot stress enough the urgency to vaccinate.
We stand ready to support in every way we can, including through the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control which is already present on the ground providing advice and support in a number of Member States.
It is encouraging to see that booster campaigns are now in full flight in many Member States.
Through our contracts, the EU has secured a sufficient number of doses for everyone to be vaccinated and boosted.
If science shows us that it is necessary, we are also in contact with companies to ensure that modified versions of vaccines adapted to Omicron can be developed and rolled out as quickly as possible.
Alongside our work on vaccines, we are also advancing in our work on safe and effective therapeutics, in terms of approving them and moving forward together to procure them, as we did for vaccines.
Beyond medical countermeasures, the by now well-known public health measures have proven effective against all viruses and different variants and remain crucial in controlling transmission.
We all know that it’s difficult to again ask our citizens, after almost two years of COVID-19, to continue applying this self-discipline and follow these measures every day. It is especially difficult now, with the end of year period approaching and many wanting to gather with friends and families.
But if we want to keep each other safe, these measures are as important as ever. This is a collective effort and responsibility, of citizens, Member States and the global community.
Whilst the Omicron variant gives cause for great concern, the fact that a virus mutates is not a surprise but rather a natural phenomenon.
If we do not use all our resources to vaccinate the world, variants will continue to emerge. Team Europe is COVAX’s largest donor of vaccines in 2021 and a key contributor to vaccine equity with over 300 million doses donated via COVAX to low and lower-middle income countries.
As a result, Team Europe has collectively exceeded the target to share at least 250 million doses by the end of 2021.
In parallel to our on-going work, we must continue to look towards and prepare ourselves for the future and potential new threats that may arise.
For this, the European Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority, HERA, is an essential part of our collective effort to strengthen the weaknesses observed during the COVID crisis.
Today I had the opportunity to brief Ministers on the vital work that HERA is already doing in terms of supporting virus analysis and the procurement of vaccines and therapeutics.
I encouraged Ministers to view HERA as a common resource for all of us, and to empower it to act decisively and effectively when emergencies hit.
Today’s debate show we are moving forward to build a true European Health Union. Having an effective and agile emergency framework is crucial.
I very much welcome the political agreements to reinforce the mandates of the European Medicines Agency and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. This is positive progress, and I want to take this opportunity to thank the Slovenian Presidency and Minister Poklukar for this work.
Today, we also covered a wide range of topics, including the Pharmaceutical Strategy, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, and our next steps on global health and pandemic preparedness.
Clearly; cooperation at EU level is of paramount importance and the European Health Union is rather quickly becoming a reality.
We owe this to the health carers around the EU, and of course to the EU citizens who now expect “Europe to do more” when it comes to health.
Thank you.
