Former commissioner says EU needs ‘more power to address health challenges’

European public health policy came into sharp focus during the coronavirus pandemic, but momentum towards creating a more coordinated and centralised EU system is now ebbing away, a leading MEP and heart surgeon tells Euronews in an exclusive interview. Vytenis Andriukaitis, who served as EU health commissioner in the five years to 2019 and is now public health policy coordinator for the Socialists & Democrats’ group in the European Parliament, said the treaty change may even be needed to avoid “ridiculous” situations where the European Commission can coordinate vaccination of animals but not children. Change was needed to strengthen the EU's competencies in public health, and to improve coordination between member states and accountability, the freshly elected MEP said.

With health being mainly a national competence, Andriukaitis questioned how much the EU can really do at present – and by extension the potential effectiveness of the EU Health Union by the European Commission in May 2024. “When we use the words ‘European Health Union’ we are going in a strange direction because we [the EU] only have competencies in cross-border healthcare,” he said. The Commission has considerable scope to intervene directly in policy areas such as internal market and agriculture.

But when it comes to healthcare, Andriukaitis said it was limited to “soft powers”, like setting up things like coordination and solidarity mechanisms. This, he argues, leads to a situation wher.