Hello to all who’ve returned to Brussels with sunkissed pores and skin, hungry for well being coverage information. 

It is a pleasure to feed your starvation for information with this primary well being transient after the summer season break. As you’ll be able to see, the e-newsletter additionally modified its pores and skin through the summer season – any more, on Wednesdays, you’ll obtain the primary EU well being issues spiced up with tales from EU international locations, with a brief intro from the editorial crew. 

An editorial phrase: The ultimate season of well being (on this mandate)

By Giedrė Peseckytė

We are getting into the final season of this mandate, forward of subsequent June’s European elections. This mandate was filled with nice episodes for well being coverage followers: it was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed ahead the creation of the European Health Union and boosted well being coverage recordsdata. 

With solely a brief legislative stretch left, the best (or probably the most controversial) well being recordsdata stay for the ultimate episodes: pharmaceutical technique and the European Health Data Space (EHDS). 

The Commission’s proposal for an important well being file in its mandate, the pharmaceutical legislation revision, is delayed – it was offered after a variety of delays on 26 April – making it not possible to organize for trilogues inside this laws. Parliament remains to be ready for the translations, anticipated to be out there by 13 September, as seen within the provisional agenda by EURACTIV, giving hopes for an announcement within the upcoming plenary in Strasbourg. This would possibly make it doable to not less than attempt to have a primary studying in Parliament nonetheless inside this legislative time period, whereas the Council is predicted to wish extra time.

In the meantime, the EHDS is at present being analysed in Parliament and Council. Ahead of the summer season, Croatian MEP Tomislav Sokol (EPP), the file’s rapporteur, voiced hope that Parliament can finalise its work on the file by September and begin interinstitutional negotiations. However one of many shadow rapporteurs informed EURACTIV on the finish of August that EU parliamentarians will want extra time for this complicated file. Sharing the file equally between ENVI and LIBE committees solely provides extra complexity. The secondary use of data continues to stir the most extensive discussions, with choices to decide out or decide in relating to secondary use of well being information. On the Council’s facet, Spanish Health Minister José Miñones informed EURACTIV on 28 July he expects the EU Council to agree on its place by the tip of the yr.

Of course, there may be greater than that: the revision of security and high quality requirements of drugs of human origin (SoHO), which can be voted on in Strasbourg subsequent week (in addition to Ambient Air Quality Directives), violence towards girls and extra, all listed in our lookahead article revealed in mid-August to provide you a greater grasp of what to anticipate within the coming months. 

Now, shifting from foreseeing the longer term to what truly occurred on well being coverage up to now week, I wish to spotlight the SANT and ENVI Committee conferences and the Commission’s approval of the newly tailored COVID-19 vaccine however please take a look for yourselves, beneath. 

Subscribe to EURACTIV’s Health Brief, the place you’ll discover the most recent roundup of stories masking well being from throughout Europe. The Health Brief is dropped at you by EURACTIV’s Health Team Giedrė Peseckytė, Marta Iraola, Amalie Mersh and Clara Bauer-Babef. 

• • SANT is drafting a report on psychological well being, calling for extra direct funding 
  • SANT offered its draft report on non-communicable ailments. 
  • ENVI: Still no settlement on F-gases in interinstitutional debate
  • EU provides inexperienced mild to new COVID-19 vaccine focusing on variants
  • Kyriakides calls to handle most cancers inequalities at Spanish Presidency’s assembly 
  • From the Capitals, our French reporter Clara Bauer-Babef will transient you on tobacco and hashish.

• SANT is drafting a report on psychological well being, calling for extra direct funding 

Following the European Commission’s communication on psychological well being in June, the European Parliament’s public well being subcommittee, SANT, is now drafting a report on the subject. Rapporteur for the file, S&D’s Sara Cerdas, known as the Commission’s communication “quite good” however mentioned she aimed for the Parliament’s report back to go deeper. “This report builds more onto this and is what the Parliament wants regarding mental health. In this regard, more proper direct funding and working a bit more together,” she mentioned. (Amalie Mersh has extra on this here). 

• SANT offered its draft report on non-communicable ailments

SANT additionally offered its draft report on non-communicable ailments. With NCDs accounting for 90% of deaths within the European Union, EU lawmakers ask for extra efforts in prevention. Alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy diets or chemical air pollution had been the primary targets that must be addressed when speaking about prevention. EU lawmakers, nonetheless, highlighted that there are already current paperwork to handle these points, comparable to Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, the REACH regulation or the Commission’s suggestion on smoke-free environments that could possibly be taken as a basepoint. While everybody appears to agree on the primary objective the query now could be will the EU want new instruments to struggle NCDs or higher use of the prevailing ones can be sufficient? (Marta Iraola studies on the draft report here). 

• ENVI: Still no settlement on F-gases in interinstitutional debate

Last week the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment (ENVI) held its first assembly after the summer season break. The merchandise on the agenda that us probably the most was the “report back on ongoing interinstitutional negotiations on Fluorinated greenhouse gases”, an setting file exhibiting that there’s a little bit of well being in each EU coverage. However, we should disappoint you that in this nine-minute assembly, the one replace on the f-gases file was that “unfortunately we were not able to find a deal on f-gas”, with no extra particulars given. 

• EU provides inexperienced mild to new tailored COVID-19 vaccine

If you had been already misplaced among the many authorised vaccines towards COVID within the EU, right here is another addition to the vaccine portfolio. The Commission authorised on Friday (1 September) the tailored COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty XBB.1.5, by BioNTech-Pfizer. As the title signifies, the vaccine is focusing on SARS-CoV-2 Omicron pressure XBB.1.5. The tailored vaccine can also be anticipated to extend the breadth of immunity towards present dominant and rising variants. This falls consistent with the ECDC-EMA statement on updating COVID-19 vaccines’ composition for XBB strains, a subgroup of Omicron. The Commission gave the inexperienced mild to this new vaccine underneath a fast-track process to allow Member states to prepare for his or her winter vaccination campaigns on time. 

• Kyriakides calls to handle most cancers inequalities at Spanish Presidency’s assembly 

Last Thursday (31 August), the Spanish EU Council Presidency hosted in Barcelona a high-level assembly on “Challenges in cancer”. The assembly aimed to replicate and focus on with consultants the present state of affairs and alternatives in most cancers remedy on the EU degree. Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides pressured the necessity to tackle the inequalities that persist within the EU, concerning mortality charges, danger components and entry to well being care amongst others. “In a European Health Union that seeks to protect everyone, such inequalities are unacceptable”, she said. José Miñones, Spain’s performing well being minister, insisted on the necessity to take a good and coordinated method towards most cancers. He additionally talked about the work EU establishments are doing to handle most cancers, like Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the Council suggestion on most cancers screening, as the best way to go on the EU degree.

• Tobacco: French cigarette costs to stay secure in 2024

While the French authorities was contemplating elevating the worth of a pack of cigarettes to €12 from the beginning of 2024, this measure is not going to happen in any case. “We raised tobacco taxes this year and we don’t plan to raise them next year. That doesn’t mean we’re not very vigilant about tobacco consumption”, declared Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on RTL radio on Sunday (September 3). Instead, an anti-smoking plan can be offered, together with a ban on disposable digital cigarettes, generally known as “puffs”, that are extremely popular with youngsters. (Clara Bauer-Babef has extra on this here). 

• Cannabis: Germany legalises, France punishes

On August 16, the German authorities handed a invoice to legalize hashish. By the tip of the yr, it ought to be doable to purchase and possess as much as 25 grams of hashish, from the age of 18. “This is a turning point in drug policy,” Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (Social Democratic Party, SPD) informed journalists. In distinction, France prefers to pursue one of the repressive insurance policies in Europe: Cannabis consumption could be punished by as much as a yr’s imprisonment and a €3,750 nice. French Economic, Social and Environmental Council (EESC) is advocating for regulated legalisation of hashish: “[It] has been tried and tested elsewhere and is about to be implemented by our German neighbours. What are we waiting for?” EESC President Thierry Beaudet posted on X (previously Twitter) on Monday (twenty eighth August). (Clara Bauer-Babef has extra on this here). 

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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