THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION REPORT. Europe in a period of transition

THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 102 ist, to quickly visualise the many aspects that would have been much worse without the active role played by the European institutions in the pandemic. There are two as- pects where the EU’s intervention was critical to provide a reasonably positive outcome to the severe crisis caused by the pandemic: tackling the economic consequences of the health crisis and vaccination. The strategy that has made it possible to procure and fairly distribute an effec- tive vaccine against SARS-CoV-19 is proving to be a great success 34 for the EU, an extraordinary achievement as vaccination is essential to put an end to the pandemic, for achieving the vaccine, for the high rate of vaccination, but also for the actual value of the process followed for all of this: single negotiation on behalf of the twenty-seven Member States, fair distribution, common priority criteria, etc. It is easy to imagine what the scenario might have been like without this role from the EU: delay in availa- bility of the vaccine, higher prices, competition between countries, unequal access and less international clout to get the vaccine to developing countries. In addition, as we saw above, the EU has played a very positive role in other health-related aspects of the crisis: supply and production of PPE, medical equipment, coordination and leadership to control the pandemic, in- ternational action on health, etc. plus the Commission’s initiatives to guarantee availability of protective equip- ment, medical devices, medicines and other essential health-related supplies.To be precise, the EU took action to resolve the situation of shortages, lack of coordination and even anti-competitive practices between Member States, that took place in the first weeks of the crisis. On 15 June 2021, the Commission 35 sent a commu- nication to the European Parliament and other EU insti- 34  El País (2021, July 6). La vacunación: Un éxito europeo. (Vacci- nation, a European success story) (OpEd) https://elpais.com/opin- ion/2021-07-06/la-vacunacion-un-exito-europeo.html 35  European Commission. COM (2021) 380 final. COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EU- ROPEAN COUNCIL, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS. Initial experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/ legal-content/ES/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52021DC0380&from=EN tutions spelling out ten initial lessons on the covid-19 pandemic. In this document, the Commission took a long hard look at itself, assuming that it has been learning as it made its decisions; each of the ten lessons includes a small analysis, along with very specific proposal to make sure that the EU is better prepared for future health crises. Almost all the proposals are familiar, but the Commission includes target implementation dates in this document. The new proposals include (1) creating the position of the European Chief Epidemiologist to facilitate political decisions and communication; (2) presentation to the Par- liament of anAnnual Report on the EU’s Preparedness for crisis situations and (3) implementation of a mechanism to activate a state of pandemic emergency in the EU. Without the shadow of a doubt, implementing all the Commission’s proposals will represent an enormous step forward in the EU’s capability to deal with future crises. However, although lesson 8 refers to the need to strengthen health systems, this point requires further specification, beyond the recommendation to use recov- ery and resilience investments to strengthen the health systems, not covered in any way in the Spanish Recovery Plan. 36 Another topic that the Commission does not ad- dress sufficiently is more effective and agile governance of the health sector within the actual commission, al- though we might hope for progress in “the correspond- ing governance structure” that is attached to the figure of the Chief European Epidemiologist. Fortunately, among the EU’s priorities, the Commis- sion includes international action to support the WHO against health crises, taking on board the thoughts from the Vice-President of the EU, Josep Borrell 37 on the pan- 36  Ramirez B.P.(2021).España racanea con su sanidad pública:es el tercer paísdelaUEquemenosdinerolededicaensuPlandeRecuperación.(Spain is stingy with its public health: it spends the third lowest in the EU on it in its Recovery Plan). Infolibre, 2/7/2021. https://www.infolibre.es/noticias/ economia/2021/06/26/espana_racanea_con_sanidad_publica_tercer_ pais_que_menos_dinero_dedica_plan_recuperacion_122124_1011. html?utm_source =twitter.com &utm_medium=smmshare&utm_cam- paign=noticias&rnot=1069898. 37  European Commission. Coronavirus: EU global response to fight the pandemic. Press Release, 8/4/2020. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/ presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_604