Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides and International Partnerships Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen announced that the European Union is working on a new EU Global Health Strategy, in a statement issued during the ministerial summit on health and development of the G7 in Berlin.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the unbearable human cost and heavy economic impact of the weaknesses of our global health architecture”, the Commissioners noted.
The pandemic, they said, “has reversed decades of progress in global health, deepened inequalities, and added to the challenges of other pandemics such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, or anti-microbial resistance, and those of climate change, geopolitics and the digital revolution”. They also underlined that lessons need to be learnt and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals must be put back on track.
“Health is the foundation for resilient, equal and just societies, but viruses know no borders. To secure the health all our citizens deserve, we must tackle health globally, and we must do this together. That is what our citizens and partners expect: robust action to secure their health — action rooted in the universal values of human rights, equity, solidarity and cooperation”, they stressed.
The two Commissioners announced that the EU will act “on the basis of a new and impactful Global Health Strategy as part of the Global Gateway”.
“We must improve health systems so that they can more effectively prevent and respond to global health threats as well as tackle all infectious and non-communicable diseases”, they explained.
“We must address inequalities and advance towards universal health coverage. We must have strong strategic health partnerships with other regions in the world. We must reinforce local health manufacturing capacities, in Africa and beyond”, the Commissioners stressed.
“And we must put the One Health approach at the core of our action, recognising the intrinsic connection between the health of people, animals, plants and their shared environment”, they underlined.
Source: Cyprus News Agency