Miscellaneous
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, strengthening Europe’s resilience against current and future health threats has become a hot item on political agendas, as well as an essential concern for citizens. Under the leadership of Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, in November 2020 the European Commission took first steps in the scope of a ‘European Health Union’ legislative package, intended to unify and improve European responses to cross-border threats. Chief among the proposed measures, which are currently under negotiation in the European Council and Parliament, is an extension of the mandate for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). But what exactly would this new mandate entail? How could it protect Europeans? And how does this proposal fit in with larger, more ambitious visions of European cohesion on health? In this podcast, Dorli-Kahr Gottlieb, Secretary General of the EHFG and one of the initiators behind the European Health Union Initiative (EHUI), sits down with ECDC Director Andrea Ammon to find out.