Eurohealth — Vol.22 | No.3 | 2016
Eurohealth SYSTEMS AND POLICIES 40
THE HEALTHPRIORITIES OF THE SLOVAKREPUBLIC’S
EU PRESIDENCY
By: Dominika Greisigerova, Olga Zajicova, Tomas Kuca and Eva Slovakova
Summary: The Slovak Republic, which will be is at the helm of the Council of the European Union until the end of the year, has embraced some key health priorities, building on previous Presidency agendas.
These priorities include: tuberculosis, antimicrobial resistance and vaccination, medicines shortages and access to innovative medicines, as well as, combating chronic non-communicable diseases and putting greater emphasis on food reformulation. The legislative agenda will focus on making progress on regulatory proposals for medical devices and the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products. The Presidency will promote the health agenda through engaging experts and civil society representatives in mutual dialogue.
Keywords: Slovak Presidency Health Priorities, AMR, Food Reformulation, Tuberculosis, Medicine Shortages
Dominika Greisigerova is a Policy Officer and Olga Zajicova is Director of the Department of EU Affairs and International Relations, Ministry of Health, Slovakia; Tomas Kuca is Director and Eva Slovakova is a Communication Officer of the Press Department, Ministry of Health, Slovakia. Email: Dominika.
Greisigerova@health.gov.sk
Introduction
Due to the fact that the Slovak Republic has taken over the Presidency of the European Union (EU) in a time of vivid political challenges, the Presidency has had to approach its general goals in a flexible manner. The scope of general priorities is comprehensively cross–cutting based on four elements: an economically strong Europe, a modern single market, sustainable migration and asylum policies, and a globally engaged Europe. Against the backdrop of these priorities, which are closely interlinked with, for example, migration and potential health threats, the Presidency will strongly endeavour to make progress in these health domains.
Legislative agenda
As the complex negotiations under the previous Presidency resulted in a few legislative proposals not reaching a conclusion, these are being continued.
Firstly, further work on the proposal for a ‘Regulation on medical devices’ aims to create a clearer, stricter and a more manageable framework for the medical devices sector, with significant benefits expected for patients, health professionals and other consumers. Secondly, in relation to the proposal for a ‘Regulation on the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use’, the Presidency will continue to examine this proposal further, with a view to making as much progress as possible.
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Eurohealth — Vol.22 | No.3 | 2016 41
Presidency priorities
The Slovak Presidency has contextualised its health priorities to synchronise with the agenda of previous Presidencies – that is, within current political realities.
The package of health priorities includes tuberculosis; antimicrobial resistance and vaccination; medicines shortages and access to innovative medicines;
non-communicable diseases and food reformulation; and Alzheimer’s disease.
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is considered a major public health challenge in many countries worldwide. Even though overall EU countries recorded a decline of 3.8%
in the number of TB cases over the last five years, 1 eastern European countries recorded a corresponding increase of 6.2%. Bearing in mind the Riga Declaration from 2015 which reaffirmed partnership efforts between eastern European states’ governments and the EU, 2 the Slovak Presidency will focus on the problem of TB and facilitate the discussion on next steps to enhance cooperation in this field, thus promoting an integrated EU policy framework on TB. The subsequent debate on TB will follow at the political level during the EU Informal Health Council in October 2016 in Bratislava.
Antimicrobial resistance and vaccination Antimicrobial resistance represents a major threat to global, regional and national health security and is interconnected with TB, as evidenced by the WHO European Region showing the highest incidence rates of multidrug- resistant TB. Especially alarming is the fact that multidrug-resistant TB is also responsible for more antimicrobial resistance deaths than any other infectious agent. 3 The Presidency also considers high population vaccination rates to be a major tool in combating over-consumption of antibiotics and expanding resistance to antibiotics. As a result, the topic of vaccination will be discussed during the Informal Council of Ministers in October 2016.
Medicine shortages and access to innovative medicines
On the one hand, the Presidency surmises that shortages of medicines are of utmost importance all over the Europe. These shortages are occurring across the supply chain and are caused by various factors such as non-compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), parallel trade, labour disruptions, economic reasons or changing market situations.
On the other hand, throughout Europe, there is no harmonised definition of ‘drug shortages’ or ‘availability of medicines’. In most cases, non-availability or shortages of medicines are addressed at the national level, depending on the type of a medicine and on the type of shortage. The Slovak Presidency aims to encourage a common reflection process on the different ways to tackle this problem. With regard to innovative medicines, the Presidency will build upon the Netherlands’s initiative to explore ways of accessing innovative treatments that might not qualify for registration or reimbursement within the current medicines authorisation and health insurance system.
Non-communicable diseases and food reformulation
The Slovak Presidency aims to strengthen the objectives and activities in combating chronic non-communicable diseases via raising awareness and bringing together experts to share their views and knowledge. Equally, food reformulation is one of the most effective ways to reduce health risk factors such as saturated fats or elevated quantities of sugar and salt in food products. Therefore, the Slovak Presidency will focus on the exchange of best practices among EU Member States in the area of food product improvement.
Alzheimer’s disease
More than 600 disorders afflict the nervous system: they include a variety of dementia diseases (including Alzheimer’s), brain cancer, encephalitis, epilepsy, stroke and multiple sclerosis.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) data, up to 35% of the European Region’s population live with brain disorders. 4 The direct costs of brain disease are accompanied by indirect costs that are more difficult to enumerate,
including loss of productivity, the profound negative impacts on the quality of life of patients as well as their relatives or carers, and significant associated stigma (see also the article on Dementia: pressing policy issues, in this issue of Eurohealth).
Therefore, the Presidency will organise a conference specifically on Alzheimer’s disease to bring together people from various fields of expertise in order to address key scientific, medical and social aspects of dementia.
The way forward
The EU is constantly being challenged by very diverse points of view when it comes to searching for compromises and addressing health issues. The Slovak Presidency firmly believes that bringing about at least a partial solution to the issues outlined here will contribute to better health practice delivery across the Union.
References
1 ECDC. Tuberculosis surveillance and monitoring in Europe, 2014. Available at: http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/
publications/Publications/tuberculosis-surveillance- monitoring-Europe-2014.pdf
2 Joint Declaration of the Eastern Partnership Summit, Riga, 21– 22 May 2015. Available at: http://
eeas.europa.eu/eastern/docs/riga-declaration- 220515-final_en.pdf
3 TB Europe Coalition. Press Release: Anti-microbial Resistance – ¼ of deaths linked to tuberculosis, 19 May 2016. Available at: http://www.tbcoalition.
eu/2016/05/19/press-release-anti-microbial- resistance-14-of-deaths-linked-to-tuberculosis/
4 McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT.
Brain disorders: By the Numbers. Available at: https://
mcgovern.mit.edu/brain-disorders/by-the-numbers
