Many actions can be taken on health before changing treaties, say MEPs

There are many more accessible actions that can be taken on health before getting onto the bigger question of changing the EU treaties, EU lawmakers said in a health committee meeting on Monday (5 December).

One of the key recommendations from working group on health at the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), the EU’s year-long deliberative democracy experiment, was for the treaties to be revisited to redistribute health competencies between the EU and member states.

“It was very clear to me and it also became very clear to a lot of politicians and to everybody who was part of the conference, that looking at the treaties was a wish from the citizens,” Troels Petersen, CoFoE citizens’ spokesperson for public health matters told MEPs at the meeting.

To move towards the goal of equal health for all, member states and the EU not sharing competencies on health is a big limitation, Petersen said.

“So that meant that in the working group on health, we actually spent a lot of time discussing how that was possible. Even though there were a lot of people telling the citizens that it was going to take years […] all the citizens said, we have to try and do it. Otherwise, nothing would ever happen at the European level,” Petersen added.

In June, MEPs voted for EU leaders to establish a constitutional convention to reopen the EU treaties. However, a third of EU countries had already signed a letter opposing changing the treaty.

Health could be key to opening EU treaties

Health policy is at the heart of demands for EU treaty reform after MEPs voted on Thursday (9 June) for EU leaders to establish a constitutional convention to reopen the EU treaties.

Low-hanging fruits

Responding to Petersen’s comments, several MEPs highlighted the necessity to first do what is possible under the current treaty.

“We have quite a lot of flexibility in [the Lisbon Treaty], in order to be faster in making the necessary decisions,” said MEP from the European People’s Party (EPP), Pernille Weiss, who argued that it would not be a solution to wait for treaty change to make changes to the health sector.

Socialist MEP Estrella Durá Ferrandis, speaking about mental health action, said that it could be necessary to change the treaty, but that “it could take many years” and that “in the meantime, there are many things that we can do”.

“I agree with you all, the treaty change takes time,” Petersen responded.

“If you read the proposals closely, it actually says that we should work within the current framework. But that doesn’t mean that we should not go for a treaty change,” he added.

Treaty change appears not to be happening in the near future, given the opposition from member states. In the meantime, Petersen suggested that a number of low-hanging fruits could be picked already now in the field of health.

This included the already ongoing European Health Data Space (EHDS) and tackling issues facing the health workforce.

“In the EU it is possible to support the member states. I know it’s not something that [the EU] can regulate, but there could be made steps to avoid brain drain – not even brain drain, occupation drain actually,” he said, referring to health sectors being drained because the private sector offers better working conditions and salaries.

A third of EU countries oppose changing bloc's treaties

One in three EU countries oppose launching a procedure promoted by the European Parliament to change the bloc’s treaties, according to a joint document seen Monday (9 May) by journalists.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

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