WE CANNOT STOP NOW!
The COVID-19 crisis revealed the fragility and lack of preparedness of the European Union in terms of public health, but it also proved what we can achieve together!
The EU as a whole and all Member States were ill prepared and under-estimated COVID-19.
The pandemic painfully exposed our lack of production capacity and our pharmaceutical dependence on third countries, thus highlighting the urgent need to strengthen our strategic autonomy. The crisis furthermore demonstrated the lack of resources in our healthcare systems and the difficulties of cross-border cooperation, to the detriment of both patients and healthcare workers.
But the COVID-19 crisis also demonstrated what the EU is capable of when we pool our collective resources and intensify cooperation. Thanks to EU and global cooperation, vaccines were developed, approved, and produced at an unprecedented speed, and joint procurement on the EU level ensured that no member state or citizen were left behind.
Renew Europe insists that the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic can and must continue to be translated to other areas and aspects of public health. Ensuring equal access
for all citizens, more affordable medicines, building stronger cross-border cooperation and ensuring better data collection and reporting are not only pivotal in times of crisis, but will improve the health of our citizens, help our health systems cope and strengthen the competitiveness our life sciences ecosystem
