key: cord-0780373-za8itjpf
authors: Franz, Christian; Jaeger, Laslo; Erklavec, Urška; Tomson, Göran; Kickbusch, Ilona; Petrič, Vesna Kerstin; Vračko, Pia
title: The EU's global action in support of universal health coverage in the time of the pandemic and beyond
date: 2022-02-01
journal: Lancet Reg Health Eur
DOI: 10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100319
sha: f55f49ea8d0d55d7f289114b1e0302ca32c6a5c8
doc_id: 780373
cord_uid: za8itjpf

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In recent months, governments and international organizations alike have aimed to regain a grip on how to address the twin challenges of UHC and health security which the Director-General of the WHO had called two sides of the same coin already back in 2017. 1 A recent WHO Position Paper argues that the pandemic has shown that "countries need to improve their organization and functioning of health systems and beyond for pandemic preparedness." 2 Supporting efforts towards the achievement of UHC has long been a focus of the European Union's global health policy. The EU and its Member States have also substantially expanded their role in global health since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, for example by proposing a global pandemic treaty and setting the agenda for the process to strengthen the global health architecture. 3 Yet, a global momentum towards marrying UHC, preparedness, and health systems resilience requires bolder global action by the EU and its Member States.

We suggest three major directions: the EU needs a new global health strategy; investing in UHC and global preparedness globally is a necessity; the EU must strengthen its own health systems to strengthen global health from within.

The last Council Conclusions on the EU's role in Global Health stem from 2010 − pre-dating the Sustainable Development Goals, the large outbreak of Ebola fever virus in Western Africa in 2014-16, and the Paris Climate Agreement. The lack of a comprehensive strategy leads to an ever-reactive approach when it comes to global health.

Recommendations:

The The EU should further develop mechanisms to build on the existing knowledge of its Member States and key institutions. Concerted action in health systems could thus be linked with investments in public health as in the partnership initiative of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and Africa CDC. 7 Strengthening the EU's engagement for global health from within

The proposed European Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) is a step in the direction of being better prepared for future health emergencies, as is the Proposal for a Regulation on serious cross-border threats to health. As of now, the negotiations on how far-reaching changes will be and how they will be financed are ongoing 8 and the EU can show that health and pandemic preparedness are priorities.

Recommendations:

The debates around the proposals for HERA, the EMA mandate and others should include the need for UHC and health security as two sides of the same coin. Investments in pandemic preparedness in member states should not be taking away from budgets of other programmes.

In the context of proposed recovery plan for Europe with NextGenerationEU, the EU should position health in the wider discussion of socio-economic recovery.

UHC and pandemic preparedness will only be achieved through an intersectoral approach; that includes strengthening human resources for health, education, research and development as well as health technologies and their supply chains. I.K. held a contract with the Ministry of Health of Health of Slovenia to support the country's EU presidency in 2021. The contract did not include the creation, conceptualization or writing of the manuscript.

V.P. is a Member of the Executive Board, WHO. P.V. is a member of the Advisory Board in Public Health to the Minister of Health, Slovenia.

The other authors declared no competing interests.

C.F., L.J., U.E., G.T., I.K. and P.V. conceived of the paper. C.F. and L.J. wrote and edited the paper. U.E., G. T., I.K. V.P. and P.V. revised the paper. G.T. and I.K. supervised the process throughout. All authors approved the final paper.

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