On Thursday, April 20th, 2023, the "public health" subcommittee held its first meeting in the presence of Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Public Health and Food Safety. With a view to the upcoming review of the pharmaceutical legislation, which has finally been announced for April 26th, this first hearing was devoted to the prevention and management of drug shortages in Europe.
"This hearing marks the official launch of the work of the new public health subcommittee in the European Parliament, but we did not wait to be a force for proposals and to build a real European Health Union," said Véronique Trillet-Lenoir, coordinator for Renew Europe in this committee.
This mandate has indeed been marked by the emergence of a real European policy on public health. "The trust of my colleagues who elected me as coordinator is a recognition of the work done over the past 4 years, particularly on the European strategy to beat cancer, the regulation on serious cross-border health threats, the European care strategy, which aims to meet the needs of caregivers, or the report on the fight against drug shortages."
The work of this new subcommittee will be carried out in close collaboration with the "lead" committee, the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) committee. "Health cannot be dissociated from environmental and food safety issues. This is the embodiment of the 'One Health' and 'Health in All Policies' approaches that I have been advocating since the beginning of my mandate," reminds French MEP.
The fight against "fake news" and health conspiracy theories will also be at the heart of the work of this subcommittee. "This is a public health requirement, following the scandalous instrumentalization of the Covid-19 special committee by far-right MEPs (including some members of the French far-right party: Rassemblement national), both in the various hearings conducted by this committee and in the amendments tabled on the initiative report drawing lessons from the health crisis, currently being negotiated in the European Parliament."
Véronique Trillet-Lenoir stands for the creation of an independent verification body for statements or falsified news to European citizens. This mechanism would better tackle fake news, which is a real danger for the security of European citizens.
Press contact: claudie.gilot@europarl.europa.eu
