Ahead of November’s hearings in the European Parliament, Euractiv takes a look at what’s in store for the Comissioner-designate for health.

Content-Type:

News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Subscribe to EURACTIV's Health Brief, your weekly update on all things healthcare in Europe.

Euractiv is part of the Trust Project

Catherine Feore Euractiv 09-10-2024 13:36 4 min. read Content type: News

Euractiv is part of the Trust Project

Facebook X LinkedIn Mail

The Health Brief is changing! Stay tuned on Monday morning for more information.

The Commissioner-designate for health Olivér Várhelyi will have to sharpen his knowledge of health issues ahead of his European Parliament hearing in November.

In questions seen by Euractiv, the parliament is planning a highly detailed interrogation of Várhelyi’s views on everything from the proposed Critical Medicines Act to nutritional labelling.

So far, we have seen questions from the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE).

ENVI has only three questions, but the first 'question' alone contains nine questions.

Affordable and competitive: In summary, the first question asks what measures Várhelyi would take to improve access and affordability to medicines while boosting the competitiveness of the health sector.

MEPs want to know his views on the prospective Critical Medicines Act, the links between the Biotech Act and the wider research agenda, how he sees EU4Health developing given the cuts in the budget, and how he will address inequalities - including access to medicines, the best treatments and the healthcare workforce. More specifically, they ask if a revision of the cross-border care directive is part of the solution.

AMR: The second question concerns the fight against antimicrobial resistance. MEPs want to know what additional measures Várhelyi will propose beyond those already in the revision of the pharma package, whether he will update the list of antibiotics reserved for human use, and in a general request for further research and innovation, there is a specific question on whether he “envisages looking into the untapped medical countermeasures, such as, bacteriophages?”

Nutritional labelling: The third and final question focuses on food systems, Várhelyi’s support for the Farm-to-Fork strategy, and environmental measures such as the CO2 footprint of agriculture and the use of pesticides. The committee wants to know what the future health commissioner will do to improve mandatory food information for consumers, in particular regarding nutrient content.

There is some repetition with the questions of other committees. We imagine that there will be a consolidation to avoid duplication before these questions are presented.

Unsurprisingly, the ITRE MEPs want to know what concrete measures Várhelyi envisages to boost the competitiveness of the health sector. They have a question about how the EU can support the diversification of supply chains, also aimed at dealing with shortages.

Medical devices are singled out for the incoming commissioner’s attention, with MEPs concerned that the current regulatory framework needs to be improved to ensure availability and competitiveness of devices - something that the Commission will raise today in its urgent statement of the Medical Devices Regulation.

ITRE also want more detail on the specific measures Várhelyi foresees in the action plan on cybersecurity of hospitals and healthcare providers and how he intends to implement existing legislation, specifically, on how the Commission aims to complete the European Health Data Space (EHDS).

Other news

European Commission is due to make a statement on the urgent need to revise the Medical Devices Regulation at the Strasbourg plenary session this afternoon. The announcement will be welcomed by the EPP, which has been pressing for change.

EU Court rules in favour of lifting market exclusivity for cystic fibrosis drug