Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-07-Speech-1-200-000"
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"en.20110307.23.1-200-000"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank the rapporteur, Mrs Rivasi, for this report, which really makes a valuable contribution to our efforts to learn from the 2009 pandemic. I agree with you that we have to learn from this pandemic and also that we need to critically review our response. To ensure the protection of European citizens against such health threats, we need to improve our preparedness and planning to manage similar cross-border threats to health.
The EU already had in place independent capacity and expertise on pandemic influenza. In the field of research alone, the European Commission has funded over 50 projects on influenza since 2000, an investment of EUR 150 million. Our agencies, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Medicines Agency, provided scientific advice during the pandemic to support the Union and its Member States.
In addition, Commission services actively supported the Member States in managing the threat through the EU Health Security Committee. However, I have to admit that, along with Parliament’s report, various evaluations of our response have identified a series of shortfalls and challenges which need to be addressed.
These include the procurement of pandemic vaccines, the need to better coordinate vaccination strategies, the need for greater flexibility in our preparedness plans and the need for better communication with the public. The Commission, with the support of the scientific agencies and with the Member States, because this is a shared competence with the Member States, is committed to moving forward on these issues.
These challenges will be addressed by us under two initiatives. First, the Commission will present a health security initiative before the end of this year reinforcing our coordination capacities, and second, the Commission will also initiate a joint procurement mechanism for pandemic vaccines and antivirals for those Member States who wish to join. This would strengthen solidarity within the EU by guaranteeing a minimum level of equitable access to vaccines. This would also reinforce our purchasing power to obtain better contractual terms.
The Commission welcomes the support expressed by the rapporteur for such initiatives. The Commission also plans to fund additional research addressing behaviour aspects and communication strategies, notably, to improve vaccine update.
Finally, concerning the transparency and independence issues raised, we consider these to be very important and I really think we have to do something here. The Commission and the relevant agencies will work together to improve our procedures on declarations of interests and potential conflicts of interest.
We believe we need to continue to pull together towards our common aim of ensuring that we are better prepared to protect our citizens against future health threats."@en1
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