On November 22, 2021, the European Institute of Romania (EIR), in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), organised the debate „Towards a European Union of Health. Individual challenges, collective solution” (online format – Zoom). The event was part of the series dedicated to the Conference on the Future of Europe and had as main objective to promote the debate on the future of Europe and to raise awareness regarding the need for European competences in the health sector, as well as for the diversification of European instruments for increasing the quality of health services and the investments in research, innovation, and development in this field.
The main ideas presented during the debate were:
- Common European actions in the health sector are a necessity in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the establishment of a European Union of Health has been underlined by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in the State of the Union speech.
- The European resilience and solidarity are based on the transformation of the European Union and its competences in the health sector, meaning, broadly speaking, the establishment of directions of action regarding how the EU can respond to crises, taking into consideration the significant interdependencies at the European level.
- It is necessary to be aware of the importance of the resilience of informational and communication systems, at the European and national level, as currently there is a concern regarding the risk of overlapping and contamination the anti-vaccination narratives with the discourses about the advantages of EU membership. At the national level, it is necessary to analyse the ascent of the RoExit discourse, which is based on disinformation regarding the Covid-19 vaccines, and it needs to be tackled from a coherent institutional approach. Moreover, the responsibility of institutions and actors who spread fake information needs to be enhanced, in order to help the efforts of health specialists in combating the effects of the pandemic.
- EU membership means concrete advantages to citizens, Romania having access to vaccines and receiving support from other member countries in the form of medical equipment and products. In this sense, more synergic actions are necessary for a better and clearer communication regarding these advantages enjoyed by Romania, as an EU member state, in the health sector, pharmaceutical policies, crises management, safety standards for food, investments in the health sector etc. Moreover, Romania should make its voice heard in the European debates, in order to reduce the gaps between the national and the European health sectors.
- Within the health sector, the pandemic proved the importance of prevention, digitalisation, and the advantages of regional integration. It is necessary to apply the principles of decentralisation, deburecratization, and dynamization, in order to increase the quality of health services, attract external funds for prevention, and increase the attractiveness, independence, and professionalization of the health profession.
- Research and innovation in the health sector must be based on a sustainable strategy, that includes all the subsectors, ensures long- and medium-term continuity and connection to Europe. In this sense, the Fresh Blood community, EITHealth partner in Romania, was presented as an example of good practices, having the goal to support innovation in the health sector by facilitating access to educational, logistical, and financial resources for specialised start-ups.