How HERA will help us get ready for future health crises

Today, the Commission is launching a European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA). HERA will strengthen Europe’s ability to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to cross-border health emergencies.

HERA will strengthen Europe’s ability to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to cross-border health emergencies. 

HERA is the culmination of what we have learnt since the beginning of the pandemic, especially from the industrial perspective.

We have come a long way

We have come a long way. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 health crisis, Europe – and first and foremost our industry – has demonstrated agility and flexibility.

Last year, we dealt with a shortage of masks and ventilators. We called on industry to increase or adapt their production lines. The response was impressive.

“Traditional” manufacturers increased their production to the maximum, and other sectors, from textiles to cars, immediately mobilised to quickly adapt their production lines and help Europe with masks, ventilators or sanitising gel.

We supported these efforts by ensuring that the internal market remained operational by reopening the borders and by providing all the necessary tools, some of them free of charge, such as the standards that guarantee the quality of these products.

This year, after winning the scientific race for COVID-19 vaccines, Europe had to win the industrial race. We had to rapidly increase the number of production sites, resolve bottlenecks in our supply chains and regain our strategic autonomy in the production of key vaccine ingredients.

We can be proud of the result: Europe has become the world’s biggest mRNA vaccine producer and is playing a leading role in fighting the global pandemic.

Over the course of the past nine months, the EU produced over 1.3 billion vaccines – enough to vaccinate more than 70% of the adult population and export half of our production to fight the global pandemic.

In record time we have succeeded in upgrading our European production system

In record time, we have succeeded, together, in upgrading our European production system, in terms of quality, speed and volume. We must and will continue our efforts for Europe and for the rest of the world - I am thinking of course of Africa.

If we were able to transform our scientific and technological excellence into industrial leadership, it was  thanks to our collective determination among all Europeans, our ability to remain united and the agility of our industry.

But we also faced enormous challenges. When we were confronted with mask and vaccine protectionism, we learnt the hard way that we cannot rely on third countries when it comes to preparing for a pandemic.

3 lessons learned

I retain three main “lessons learned”:

1. Our supply chains are much more fragile than we imagined. We cannot guarantee the public health of our citizens without reducing our dependence on third countries, for example for lipids needed for the production of vaccines, or chemicals for the production of protective gloves. This does not mean that we should act in isolation, but we cannot afford to be naive.
2. We need a much stronger dialogue with industry and improved access to up-to-date information about supply chains and the available capacity at European production sites. Relying on CEOs responding to your calls in the early hours of the morning is not enough!
3. The EU needs strong and flexible industrial capacities to cope autonomously with the needs of sudden mass production in the event of a crisis.

Adressing the lessons with a strong industrial dimension

HERA addresses these lessons with a strong industrial dimension:

-         HERA will have the legal means to request key information about production capacity and supply chains from industry in times of crisis. It will map production capacities, identify bottlenecks and dependencies in our supply chains and address them, together with industry.

-         HERA will help the emergence of new industrial partnerships, including for SMEs, and it will establish close cooperation with industry through a Joint Industrial Cooperation Forum.

-         HERA will maintain a network of production capacities for vaccines and therapeutic products, which can be rapidly activated in times of crisis – the so-called EU FAB initiative. And HERA will also facilitate the establishment of new production capacities.

-         HERA will allow for the procurement and stockpiling of key products and materials.

The European Commission will not do this alone. It will work closely with national authorities. HERA will operate in conjunction with national initiatives, such as the planned Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on health, which Member States are putting in place.

On top of this, HERA will have an important global dimension.

On Monday 20 September, I will be in the United States for the launch of a joint US-EU COVID Task Force on production and supply chains, together with Jeff Zients who leads the COVID Response Team at the White House. International collaboration, not only with the US but also with other partners around the world, will be crucial to resolve bottlenecks in supply chains and to fight global health crises.

With today’s announcement, Europe will harness its ingenuity and its strong industrial base to become more resilient and autonomous in the face of health crises.

This is an indispensable step forward for Europe.