“Check against delivery”
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening.
European healthcare is navigating a perfect storm. Our demographics are changing. Chronic diseases are on the rise. Healthcare costs are high – and they are only getting higher. And we find ourselves short of healthcare professionals and critical medicines. Not to mention the challenges facing Europe: from geopolitics to climate and the cost of living.
We can steer our way through these stormy waters if we have the right strategy, and we can come out of them stronger. Now is the time to make the EU an innovation powerhouse again, and to reshape health for a stronger Europe.
Competitiveness and innovation are very powerful tools. They can help us address the challenges that European healthcare is facing. In this fast-moving world, with technology changing every aspect of our lives, Europe needs to lead with conviction. And we can.
Digital technologies are the engine powering this transformation.
Take for example cardiovascular diseases — the leading cause of premature death in Europe. Digital solutions can help to bring about smarter prevention and tailor-made treatments. Artificial Intelligence can help us to transform biotechnology – like:
- Speeding up the discovery and development of life-saving therapies,
- Analysing large amounts of genetic data, to better prevent and predict diseases,
- And making personalised and patient-centred medicine a reality.
With the European Health Data Space, we are creating a secure and interoperable environment to share health data.
Researchers, industry leaders, and policymakers will be able to work together in ways that are unprecedented.
Accessing data securely to develop life-saving treatments and personalised medicines is key.
For Europe, this means:
- driving scientific breakthroughs
- building a unified market for digital health
- and delivering technologies that improve people’s lives.
The European Health Data Space can set up a new era of innovation.
But innovation cannot happen without trust.
That’s why we have already published the European Action Plan on the cybersecurity of hospitals and healthcare providers as a priority action very early in this new mandate.
This is our pledge to protect citizens, their data and the systems they rely on.
Cyberattacks can delay medical procedures, create gridlock in emergency rooms, and disrupt vital services.
By equipping providers with the right tools and by supporting cross-border cooperation, we can keep digital health secure and resilient.
So that patients, providers and industry can trust that innovation is built on strong foundations.
Innovation also needs the right regulatory environment.
Our pharmaceutical rules have been in place for more than 20 years.
We urgently need to modernise them. This is not only about ensuring that patients can access medicines across the EU. It is also about making our rules fit for the future so they can support innovation. I will engage constructively with the European Parliament and the Council to reach a balanced compromise on the pharmaceutical reform as a priority.
But we need to do more to help Europe’s pharmaceutical sector produce the medicines we need, when we need them. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted structural dependencies in our pharmaceutical supply chains. Too often, important products are made by only a few manufacturers or sourced from a small number of countries. Shortages of critical medicines are becoming far too common in the EU, affecting almost all Member States.
This is why I will propose a Critical Medicines Act early in this new mandate.
This Act is key to making medicines more rapidily available and boosting European manufacturing. It will also help to create market incentives. Another sector full of potential is biotechnology. A new European Biotech Act will enable more innovation here in Europe. There is huge potential in combining biotech with the power of artificial intelligence and data, harnessed by the European Health Data Space.
It can help us:
- understand and identify diseases,
- develop new medicines and therapies,
- and come up with strategies to prevent or control diseases.
In the Biotech Act, I will explore measures to help scientists bring their products from the laboratory to the factory and onto the market.
And I will make sure that we enable industry with the digital tools they need, including AI. This Act should help us create a new world-leading biotech industry and a new healthcare industry. European healthcare systems should also embrace innovation.
Moreover, healthcare systems cannot operate without medical devices that are safe, innovative and very importantly, available.
Therefore we will take immediate action to find solution to current regulatory challenges. We will carry out a targeted assessment to explore the ways to secure a more sustainable legislative framework that supports innovation without compromising patient safety.
Preventive health is also key to future-proofing health systems. The focus has often been on treating diseases – but the best disease is the one that you do not get in the first place.
Building upon the success of the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, I intend to propose an ambitious Plan for European Cardiovascular Health.
We will use cutting-edge technology and health data to help prevent cardiovascular diseases.
Harnessing these technologies is also efficient – ultimately helping relieve healthcare systems from financial pressures.
Meanwhile, significant health inequalities persist between EU countries, and EU healthcare systems face complex challenges. The European Semester coordinates the economic policy of European governments.
It can also help Member States reform their healthcare systems, through recommendations tailored to each country’s unique challenges and opportunities.
In an era of workforce shortages and ageing populations, these reforms could unlock the potential of healthcare.
One key area that all Member States and the EU as a whole need to work on is antimicrobial resistance.
The rise of drug-resistant infections could undermine all our other efforts. Therefore, the Commission will continue to support Member States as they make progress towards our 2030 targets to tackle this issue.
And we need to address under‑investment and create a market for new and more effective antibiotics, developed and manufactured in Europe.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Health is among the top priorities of European citizens. I want European healthcare to come out of the current storm stronger than ever. I want to deliver a European Health Union that supports prevention and treatment. A European health industry that leads the world on diagnostics, therapies and innovation. European healthcare systems that are responsive, resilient and secure.
Together, we can reshape the future of health in Europe.
Thank you.
Source – EU Commission