Coronavirus Covid-19: Kyriakides (EU Commission), “Eu4Health will be a revolutionary feature for the health of our citizens”

An unprecedented feature in the Next Generation Eu package is Eu4Health, a programme that will be an independent expense item in the EU multiannual budget for 2021-2027, endowed with 9.4 billion euros. It is a “shift of paradigm”, as explained by the Health Commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, evidence that “we have learnt that health is a priority”. Within the EU’s powers on health, as pointed out by the EU commissioner Margaritis Schinas, the programme will have a number of goals: firstly, “being more prepared for a crisis”. “It will never happen again that doctors should have to choose which patient they should treat”, Kyriakides stated: the programme will make sure “available, innovative and affordable medical supplies”, healthcare staff and experts will be created so that they can be deployed to respond to public health crises all over the EU; the programme wants to work to strengthen Europe’s existing healthcare facilities (European Medicines Agency and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) as well as “strengthen the national health systems for everyone to have better health”, while removing differences. According to Kyriakides, Eu4Health will be a “revolutionary feature for the health of our citizens”.
Valentina Bombelli