Today, Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Public Health and Food Safety, takes part in the informal meeting of Health Ministers in Prague, under the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. The first session of the meeting focuses on the public health impact of the war in Ukraine. EU Health ministers will discuss in presence of Minister of Health of Ukraine, Viktor Liashko, immediate, but also long-term assistance to Ukraine. In July, the Commission and Ukraine signed an agreement for Ukraine’s association to EU4Health. The second session will address the importance of vaccination at large, especially with regard to the implementation of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 and the ongoing work on the monkeypox outbreak. In this context, the Commission issued a communication proposing concrete measures to avoid a surge of COVID-19 cases in the upcoming autumn and winter season. Ministers will also debate the future of the fight against pandemics. A third part of the meeting will focus on Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and its implementation. Ministers will address early detection, screening, and the EU network of comprehensive cancer centres. The meeting finally includes a ministerial-level meeting of the HERA Board, where the future of (current and future) contracts for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines will be discussed. Representatives of the manufacturers and the Commission (BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna management) will attend this meeting. A press conference with Commissioner Kyriakides will take place at +/- 18:00 and can be followed live on EbS.
COLLEGE MEETING: The European Commission appoints two new Directors for its Joint Research Centre
The European Commission has decided today to appoint Alessandra Zampieri as Director ‘Sustainable Resources’ and Guy Van den Eede as Director ‘Health, Consumers and Reference Materials’ at the Joint Research Centre (JRC). As the science and knowledge service of the European Commission, the JRC’s mission is to support EU policies with independent evidence throughout the whole policy cycle. The date of effect of their appointments is to be determined later. Alessandra Zampieri, an Italian national, brings with her advanced leadership and negotiation skills, as well as rich experience in evidence based policy making. Being an experienced communicator, she also has an excellent track record of presenting complex technical or scientific files to non-specialised public. Alessandra Zampieri is currently Deputy Director and Head of the Disaster Risk Management Unit of the JRC, in charge of strengthening the EU’s capacity to cope with natural hazards and human-made disasters. She notably supervises research activities in support of the Green Deal, Digital Transformation, and a Stronger Europe in the World. Prior to that, she was responsible for the Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography providing EU migration policymakers with policy-relevant knowledge and evidence-based analysis. She joined the JRC in 2009 as Head of the Maritime Affairs Unit in charge of developing scientific and technological methodologies for EU policies related to the sea. Earlier in her career, she worked on maritime and aviation policies, also as Deputy and acting Head of the Unit ‘Air safety’ in the former Directorate-General for energy and transport and as a Member of Cabinet of Vice-President Loyola de Palacio. She joined the European Commission in 1993 after graduating in Economics, at the University of Genoa. Guy Van den Eede, a Belgian national, will draw on his recognised expertise in life sciences as an Engineer in Chemical and Agronomical Sciences and as an author of over one hundred scientific papers. In this role, he will benefit from his 22 years of managerial experience in the JRC as a specialist of public health, food and feed safety. Guy Van den Eede has been the acting Director of the Directorate for ‘Health, Consumers & Reference Materials’ and for the management of the Geel Site since 2019. He has provided independent scientific evidence for the development, implementation and evaluation of EU policies in the areas of public health, medical devices, consumer products, nanomaterials, food and feed safety and authenticity, standardisation and reference materials. Previously, he headed the Units ‘Knowledge for Health and Consumer Safety’ and ‘Biotechnology and GMOs’, covering life science-related files in the field of public health, food safety and security, toxicology, molecular biology and GMOs. Before joining the JRC in 1990 to provide technical support to the implementation of the EU policies on GMOs, he was a Professor Assistant at the University of Ghent, specialising in plant molecular biology and in bacterial molecular biology.
Commission and European Investment Bank unlock up to €10 billion to support public investments in the territories in transition towards a climate-neutral economy
The Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have signed an agreement on the Public Sector Loan Facility, the third pillar of the Just Transition Mechanism (JTM). The agreement paves the way for public sector entities in the EU territories and regions that need most support in Europe’s transition to a climate-neutral economy to benefit from €1.5 billion grants from the Commission and €10 billion of EIB loans. Commission for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, said: “The European Green Deal is our strategy to achieve a climate-neutral economy and Cohesion Policy will help delivering our green objectives in a fair way. Thanks to this agreement with the EIB, the Public Sector Loan Facility will offer public authorities in the regions and territories that most need support preferential lending conditions for projects that do not generate sufficient revenue to be financially viable. The European Commission and the EIB will keep working together to support a fair transition that will leave no one behind.” The agreement is expected to mobilise between €18-20 billion of investments over the next seven years and it follows the launch of the call for proposals by the Commission worth €1.5 billion of EU grants. The Public Sector Loan Facility is one of the three pillars of the JTM, which is part of the European Green Deal to achieve EU climate neutrality by 2050. To be eligible, projects must be located in, or benefit, territories that Member States have identified in their Territorial Just Transition Plans as facing the biggest challenges to move away from fossil fuels and carbon-intensive industries. Public sector entities in just transition regions are invited to consult the relevant documentation and submit their proposals on the Commission’s Funding and Tenders portal. Potential beneficiaries can also request advisory support from the InvestEU Advisory Hub. More details here.
Source: Cyprus News Agency