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 two thousand and nine 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 fifty projects on influenza since two thousand an investment of eur one hundred and fifty 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
