Today @EU_Health proposed a common strategy for the deployment of #COVID__19 vaccines in the EU. Although it might not come as a major surprise, we should consider the historic significance for EU health law and policy, and the EU as a whole. 1-8 https://twitter.com/MargSchinas/status/1316669932063555584

Medicines in the EU for the longest time, since the sixties, where ‘regulated’ at EU level for their safety and efficacy. But no ‘redistribution’ or public purchasing would take place at EU level. 2-8

Medicines are a huge part of the budgets for health care at national level, and giving the EU the capacity to purchase medicines and then determine on their distribution, was simply not a power Member States were willing to let go. 3-8

Ensuring access to medicines as part of the arrangements for accessing health care for citizens is a ‘state-making’ policy, that ties the loyalties of citizens more directly to the state – or in this case the EU. Now COVID19 has turned this status quo on its head. 4-8

The EU is not only in the lead for all Member States in the purchasing of COVID19 vaccines, but today it has also outlined the policy for its distribution and how it expects Member States to get ready for their deployment. 5-8

This involves sensitive questions as to who get the vaccine first. It involves solidarity between Member States and between EU citizens. Are we seeing, albeit at a relatively small scale, a true glimpse of an EU welfare state? 6-8

This will all depend on the Member States willingness to cooperatively implement this new policy, 7-8

but also, on the understanding and flexibility that EU law and policymakers can show for the very great differences in public health infrastructure, cultures and capacities across the EU. 8-8