The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical need for robust and flexible health systems, revealing disparities in healthcare efficiency and outcomes among Member States. Though the last major wave of the pandemic receded only still relatively recently, the EU is already facing another set of significant healthcare challenges. Key threats include aging populations, rising healthcare costs, climate change, and human resource shortages. The good news is that it is possible to overcome these obstacles. An absolute priority of the next EU Commission president, in this regard, must be to support the development of a joint EU healthcare system, while respecting the specific circumstances of individual member states.
This entails a need for investments in preventive care, early diagnostics, and health determinants management, alongside efforts to enhance innovation uptake, expand central procurement, and plan human resources coherently across the EU. Addressing health disparities, supporting healthy aging, and mitigating climate change impacts are also crucial priorities for ensuring sustainable healthcare financing and improved health outcomes for populations.
The policy brief Developing a More Resilient and Sustainable EU Healthcare System offers recommendations on the priorities that the European Commission should adopt in the area of resilient and sustainable healthcare system. The brief is part of the GLOBSEC consultation project and is included in the publication Pivotal Moment for Europe: Central European Proposals for the Next EU Leadership.
Read the full report and individual chapters below.
