Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, I strongly disagree with the establishment of HERA, either as a stand-alone agency or just as a unit within the Commission. I believe that this task should have been entrusted to ECDC and it seems to me that HERA is merely robbing the powers of ECDC. Under the proposal, it should provide an assessment of cross-border health threats. And I'm asking: Does the ECDC not provide these assessments? Isn't that the primary reason for its existence? So what exactly is the added value of HERA? Besides, where will the staff working in this new department come from? The number of experts in this field in Europe is not large. Is the Commission planning to rob staff from its own DG SANTE or ECDC or EMA? Another scandal is how the Commission approached cooperation with the European Parliament. The establishment of such an important body by means of a Council Regulation is very unfortunate, does not help to clarify the situation and does not indicate good inter-institutional relations. Unfortunately, this ill-considered approach will only force us to react differently to the HERA proposal by amending the mandate of the Cross-Border Health Threats Regulation. Colleagues, yes, many of our citizens follow the health system, but it is not possible to operate it as cabinet legislation.

Mr President, Commissioner, first of all, I would like to thank my colleague Kountoura for her well-conducted motion for a resolution on the crucial issue of road safety. Every year around 22 700 people still lose their lives on the roads of the European Union and around 120 000 are seriously injured. I am therefore positive that EU countries confirm their long-term strategic goal of achieving close to zero fatalities and zero serious injuries on EU roads by 2050. As part of this vision of zero casualties on the road, there is a debate about road infrastructure safety, modern technologies, brands, etc. However, I believe that Member States should also support those drivers who want to improve. Even through safe driving experience courses, events, car testing on special sliding surfaces, every driver can test their abilities or the quality of their vehicle on EU polygons. These are training bases, centers for drivers with high social added value, experience centers for drivers, which are already perceived by many subjects. I believe that Member States should support these activities, as the experience of these test sites can lead to the right decision when our lives are at the crossroads between life and death.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, when we are talking about natural disasters, I would also like to share with you one that my country, the Czech Republic, has experienced. At the end of June, a tornado struck South Moravia, leaving billions of crowns worth of damage and, worse, casualties. Of course, this could be discussed for a long time, but I would like to underline two things. The first is the need for a good meteorological forecast and an early warning system for citizens, which obviously did not work here. And the second is related to the great solidarity of the people. I would like to express my thanks to all those who helped South Moravia, and perhaps even a little more to volunteers and volunteer firefighters. Firefighters are those who do not cry every year that they need to buy new military equipment for billions, and yet they were there first and stayed the longest. Thanks to them for that.

Madam President, Commissioner, a year ago we adopted a resolution on the European Union's public health strategy after the pandemic, in which we all called for a stronger role for the EMA. I think we have managed to adopt a fairly balanced text on the committee, despite all the disputes, which will strengthen the Agency. Therefore, I would like to ask you not to vote against the compromises reached in the ENVI Committee. Unfortunately, I see one huge problem in the current developments surrounding the building of the Health Union. This is a lack of funding for the further development and strengthening of the EMA and ECDC health agencies. It was already clear from the Commission's initial proposal that more money would have to be sent to them, because the current funds would simply be far from sufficient. What was my shock when I found out that, on the contrary, cuts were planned for EMA and ECDC in the planned budget for next year. Yes, some might argue that they will receive some extra money from the EU4Health programme. It can strengthen the funding of these agencies, but at its core it is only project and time-limited funding. Moreover, the programme has far more important priorities that we have overlooked for decades. In addition, so far, it seems that the agencies' regular budget has been cut by exactly as much as they should have received extra. So we just moved the money from the right pocket to the left pocket and we'll expect something to change. So what do we want? I thought we should learn from the current pandemic and strengthen the structures we have. So far, however, it seems that we rather want to maintain the status quo. Colleagues, I very much hope that we will be able to resolve the issue of new funding by the autumn, because if not, then we can blow the whistle on the entire famous Health Union.