#EAPM - Commission, committees and the cancer mission: #PHC

Splits on Spitz…

Although Commission President-elect von der Leyen comes from the winning group in the European elections, she was never put in front of the public (or even her own party) as a 'Spitzenkandidat'.

Parliament has said it won't endorse anyone who has not gone through that process, so there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth at the fact that this young 'system' has been so ruthlessly nipped in the bud - notably by France's Emmanuel Macronand Hungary's Viktor Orbán.

Will the EP vote for von der Leyen? The smart money is on ‘yes’, but it won't like it.For example, Germany's powerful Green Party is threatening to torpedothe nomination.  

"It's an unparalleled act of political trickery," said Sigmar Gabriel, a big namein Germany's centre-left SPD and a former party leader.

He has called on his party, which runs Germany with Angela Merkel's centre-right party, to block the nomination.Time will tell…

Meanwhile, as expected, Italy got the Parliament presidency for the next two-and-a-half years, in the shape of David Sassoli, which was a no-brainer given that Germany, France and Spain got three of the other top jobs up for grabs.

Sassoli is a former journalist and broadcaster and, in Italy, a person’s political affiliation - the centre-left in thiscase - remains important in a career. Apparently, even the afore-mentionedBerlusconi respected him.

Working together

Now, as we draw ever closer to knowing the make-up of the next Commission, and we already know the Parliament, it’s time for all the powers-that-be to accept the importance of health care to the EU population, put political colour and hue aside, and cooperate for the next five years in order to bring the best treatments and medicines to the citizenry.

The right treatment, for the right patient at the right time, in fact.

We’ve seen recent good signs regarding the need and desire for co-operation - not least in areas such as rare disease reference networks, EU-wide HTA, electronic health record and e-Prescription sharing, and the Declaration on the one-million genomes project.

Yet these are still relatively early days for the EU getting properly involved in healthcare - given member state competence - although it has plunged into the pool with over-arching legislation in areas such as cross-border healthcare, IVDs, clinical trials, data protection and so on.

What is required now is an acknowledgement at the highest EU levels that health is a priority and, while it crosses many areas such as employment, the digital market, data sharing, AI and more, there needs to be a cohesive policy that brings all elements together to produce more-and-more tangible results.

It is a view held by many that President Juncker missed a trick by failing to acknowledge health care as a priority, but von der Leyen has trained in medicine and public health, so the hope is that by giving healthcare its due importance, she and her team may well find themselves closer to the wishes of European citizens.

Hopefully, the incoming president is au fait with the advances and opportunities brought about by personalised medicine, as this is clearly an important way forward.

The person has to be atthe heart of his or her health care, a concept long championed by EAPM, and some of those at the political and policy level are grasping this. (Hat-tips here to DG Connect which has done superb work in the digital health sector to position the EUas a world leader, as well as DG SANTE and DG Research.)

However, while the potential for vast forward movement in healthcare clearly exists, as we enter a new five-year cycle there is a need for more public/private investment, better stakeholder co-operation, and continued support from the Commission to persuade and thus empower member states to work together.

As the new Parliament and Commission perform their work down the line, rest assured that EAPM will miss no opportunity to engage officials and MEPs to this end.

Game of thrones

The European Parliament committees will, next week,elect their chairs during meetings in Brussels.

As we’ve mentioned before, the favourite to head the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) committee is Frenchman Pascal Canfin (of Macron’s Renew Europe group). Canfin has pledged to unite mainstream parties in the fight against climate change.

ENVI will boast at least three former health ministers this term -Bartosz Arłukowicz (a paediatrician) and his predecessor Ewa Kopacz (both held the health portfolio in Warsaw), as well as Spain’s former Health Minister Dolors Montserrat.

Indeed, ENVI can boast a ‘healthy’ spread as Portugal’s Sara Cerdasis a former internal medicine physician and ex-swimming champion (according to Politico), while Germany’s Renew Europe MEP Andreas Glückis a surgeon.

Meanwhile, Romanian Adina-Ioana Vălean, a supporter of EAPM’s STEPs Group of MEPs, looks poised to become chair of the Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) committee. Shew as head-honcho of the environment committee from 2017-2019. 

Mission:Possible

Horizon Europe’s cancer mission is looking towards a virologist and Nobel Prize winner to get things off the launch pad in respect of its big-money cancer research mission.

Germany’s Harald zur Hausen is the main man, and will become chairman of the mission board on cancer.

Back in 1976, zur Hausen made a research break through when he discovering the human papillomavirus. This is one of the first viruses identified as a cause of cancer and spawned the adoption of a widespread vaccination programme.

The Commission plans to fund the cancer mission (and others)as part of a proposed €83 billion, seven-year research programme, but delivering results is key. The EU Executive says that the missions are a way to make a real difference to citizenslives, but thereare concerns that they mayget hijacked by the interests of big business.

Mariana Mazzucato, an economist at University College London and the Commission’s adviser on its mission plans, wrote in a report out this week: “Public consultations that feed into the definition of mission proposals need to be designed in such a way to avoid capture by vested interests.”

So, ‘hands off our cash’ is the clear message.