EU creates crisis health authority HERA to deal with future pandemics

The EU has created a crisis health authority known as HERA to deal with future pandemics across the continent.

The new Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) is designed to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to health emergencies.

According to the EU Commission, “HERA will anticipate threats and potential health crises, through intelligence gathering and building the necessary response capacities. When an emergency hits, HERA will ensure the development, production and distribution of medicines, vaccines and other medical countermeasures – such as gloves and masks – that were often lacking during the first phase of the coronavirus response.”

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said,“HERA is another building block of a stronger Health Union and a major step forward for our crisis preparedness. With HERA, we will make sure we have the medical equipment we need to protect our citizens from future health threats. HERA will be able to make swift decisions to safeguard supplies. This is what I promised back in 2020, and this is what we deliver.”

HERA activities will rely on a budget of €6 billion from the current Multiannual Financial Framework for the period 2022-2027, part of which will come from the NextGenerationEU top-up.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, please remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and follow us on Facebook and Instagram