Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-12-Speech-2-313"
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"en.20050412.30.2-313"2
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".
Madam President, I cannot say that I am happy to be here discussing this issue with you because it is not a pleasant one, but at the same time I think it is useful that we have the opportunity to exchange views and present to you what we in the Commission are planning for the future and what actions we are taking.
We, the Member States, the vaccine industry and the European Medicines Agency will work together to create a favourable situation for such production, but also for a more rapid licensing procedure. Of course all these moves may not completely resolve the problem of supply of vaccines for the Member States, but they certainly make huge strides in the right direction.
A similar process has been started with the manufacturers of antivirals. It will bring the Member States and the industry together to seek a common position. I will report back to you on this as soon as we have the outline of a solution to the problem of shortages of production and stockpiling. But we encourage Member States to proceed with stockpiling and many of them, mostly the larger Member States, are already doing so. We feel that it is a process that all Member States have to engage in, because despite all the drawbacks and all the problems that may exist in regard to the effectiveness of the antivirals, it will be the first line of defence. It will be our first means of dealing with the virus, with the disease, in the event of a pandemic. We will need to have this breathing space until we manage to develop the new vaccine and increase the capacity to actually produce it, disseminate it and use it. Since antivirals will be the first line of defence, they are worth the investment, worth the effort.
Let me draw your attention to a positive development, to the decisions we took last week at the Commission, in relation to the financial perspectives. We also adopted the regulation on the solidarity fund, which will include a line relating to public health threats. The decisions fall within the context of the legislative instruments and will cover the next financial perspectives. They concern the general availability of funds for health preparedness and vaccines in case of major public health threats.
The solidarity fund will have a ceiling, a volume of about EUR 1 billion a year. We believe that it will have enough flexibility to cope with health emergencies, while it will also be able to help those Member States that meet the requirements to fund the effort of acquiring and using the vaccines in case of pandemic. I hope very much, indeed I am certain, that the European Parliament and the Council will make every effort towards a speedy agreement of this proposal.
Finally, another very important issue is early detection. As I said, it takes time to identify a new strain of virus and develop vaccines to deal with it. The sooner we manage to detect it, the easier it will be to deal with the problem and even to contain it as far as possible.
To this end we have set up a network of communication with the Member States and with the World Health Organization. However, our main instrument in this effort is the early warning and response system. Under this system Member States will inform each other and the community in case of a problem.
Let me also mention the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which is becoming operational now. Of course, it will take another year or so until it can function at full capacity. When the time comes, that centre will take over and operate the early warning and response system and manage health threats of this kind.
We are concerned about the influenza pandemic. We expect it to be unprecedented if it occurs and unless we take the necessary measures. Even in an optimistic scenario, the figures given to us by scientists are very worrying, with deaths worldwide in the range of about 8 million at least. But the worst-case scenarios suggest deaths in the range of 30 million. Therefore this is now one of our top priorities; it is a major concern, and we will continue working on it and making great endeavours to put all the mechanisms and structures in place.
However, our success will depend heavily on strong political commitment and support on the part of the Council, Member States, the Commission and of course the European Parliament. I am confident that I can count on your support.
It is true that the influenza pandemic is a threat and, as the scientists advise, it is no longer a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’. It is overdue, it is something that happens every so many years, it should have happened already. How we deal with this is therefore a top priority, both at Community level, coordinating the Member States, but also working together with WHO, not only in Europe, but also worldwide, and with some of our partners such as the United States, which shares our concerns.
We have undertaken work in many fields. Some of it concerns, for example, measures directed at the source of human infection. We are discussing the plans of the Member States and how we can coordinate them at EU level. We are looking at vaccines and antiviral drugs and at surveillance and diagnostics in inter-connected laboratories to identify a pandemic strain. We need, of course, to identify the potential sources of this problem.
As you know, one of these potential sources is avian flu, which is a real problem. It already exists in Asia and many people have already died from it. But the main concern is that this disease has become endemic. It is not an epidemic that will simply go away; it is there, it is rooted and its eradication cannot be considered a short-term objective. We have also taken measures to try to deal with this problem. The Commission has adopted a new directive on measures for the control of avian influenza to ensure that the Member States can apply the most appropriate surveillance and control measures. In this way we hope we can reduce the risk when major outbreaks occur in the Community in the future.
We have a plan at Community level, but we also need to have national plans at Member State level. In March, together with the World Health Organization, we organised a workshop where we could discuss and exchange views on these plans. It was a useful exercise. We helped Member States to update and improve their national preparedness plans. At the same time we identified those Member States that do not yet have plans and we will help them develop such plans. This is very important because we have a plan at Community level but the actual implementation of plans is up to the Member States. We are happy to say that the response by the Member States showed that the public health services are taking this problem very seriously. We are considering how best to implement the Community plan. Its aspects include communication, isolation and vaccination, the use of drugs, restrictions on public gatherings, and information to the public.
We are planning a Europe-wide exercise, a kind of military-style exercise, that will put these plans to the test and, we hope, see how they work on a fake scenario. We intend to conduct this exercise before the next influenza season in order to test the plans and see what is lacking, what the problems are, so that we can correct the plans and coordinate them better.
A very important problem, as I am sure you are aware, is the issue of vaccines. With vaccines we have three problems. The first is the issue of actually identifying the strain, because in the case of a pandemic we expect a new strain. Then there is the issue of developing the vaccine and, just as important, of having the capacity to produce enough vaccines to cover the population in the event of a pandemic. Because the strain will be a new one, stockpiling vaccines is no solution and does not help.
We have met with representatives of the Member States and we have agreed a way of engaging the industry in a kind of public-private partnership to facilitate the rapid production of pandemic vaccines in time of need. I am optimistic that we will reach an agreement with the industry. The basic principle is that the Member States will increase their level of purchase of vaccines at this stage, so as to justify enough investment to increase the capacity of the Member States in the event of a pandemic. At the same time the Member States have pledged to redouble their efforts to stick to their vaccine recommendations, so as to achieve high uptake rates among the relevant population groups, i.e. the high-risk groups.
We, for our part, are ready to work on the drawing-up of proposals for EU recommendations that can be issued by the Council on who is to be vaccinated on public health grounds. Another possible way to increase capacity – and the industry has promised to look into this – is by converting other facilities, such as those used for veterinary medicine production, for the rapid production of vaccines in a pandemic situation."@en1
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