21. 12. 2022
The Council of Health Ministers of the EU discussed in particular the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines at the December meeting. Changes in medical devices and the promotion of mental health were also discussed. The meeting was led by the Czech Minister of Health Vlastimil Válek. Slovak Republic represented State Secretary of the Ministry of Health Róbert Babeľa.
The Euro Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides attended the meeting. The most important debate was on the procurement of vaccines against COVID-19 disease, given the surplus that all Member States currently face. During the debate, ministers sent a clear and uniform signal to the European Commission that, although they consider joint procurement to be a success at EU level, the situation has changed since 2020 and contracts with manufacturers need to be renegotiated in order to be more flexible towards the current and real needs of the Member States. The Slovak Republic stressed the need for flexibility in terms of reducing or abolishing the number of vaccines contracted. Until an acceptable solution with Pfizer is reached, our party has asked to suspend supplies. The Slovak delegation, together with several states, has come up with a solution to the problem of excess vaccines. She suggested replacing vaccines with other life-saving medicines from the Pfizer portfolio.
In addition to the initiative to change the delivery of vaccines against disease COVID-19, the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic is intensively working on the process of donating them. Currently finalizes the donation of 300 000 vaccines for Serbia. We are also dealing with Kazakhstan and Brazil. The aim of the resort is to minimise the number of vaccines that will not be used to protect the population from disease. The state of implementation of the Medical Devices Regulation was also discussed during the Council, as there is a risk of a shortage of medical devices due to a small number of notified bodies which, in a transitional period, have been able to implement the necessary measures to adapt to the new Regulation. The solution supported by Slovakia is a legislative proposal to amend the Medical Devices Regulation, which will be presented by the EC at the beginning of next year. The objective is to ensure the availability of medical devices and not to endanger patients in the Member States. Another important topic was information from the European Commission on the forthcoming review of pharmaceutical legislation. The aim is to promote innovation and increase the availability of medicines for EU citizens. State Secretary Róbert The baby agreed on the need to stimulate the development of new antibiotics and stressed that medicines could not be considered as common goods but as a product that saved lives. They also discussed a new comprehensive strategy to promote mental health, to be presented in the new year. The Commission also plans to introduce a specific year of mental health. Most ministers, including Slovakia, supported the European Year of Mental Health campaign.
