Today, the Commission adopted a Communication on the European Health Union, which highlights the strides made in EU health policy over the last four years, for the benefit of citizens in the EU and worldwide.

The start of this mandate was marked by the biggest pandemic in a century, which caused human suffering on a worldwide scale and tested public health systems to the limit. However, the COVID-19 pandemic also showed what EU solidarity, collaboration and decisive action can achieve. Thanks to the EU Vaccines Strategy, all EU citizens had access to life-saving COVID vaccines at the same time under the same conditions. This helped to stem the spread of the virus and saved millions of lives. The EU Digital COVID Certificate allowed economies and societies to re-open safely, while SURE helped over 31 million workers to overcome the economic impact. As pandemics know no borders, our cooperation and solidarity also extended across the world. Through our Team Europe approach, the EU became the largest donor of vaccines through COVAX and provided almost €54 billion in emergency support to partner countries.

The European Health Union thus emerged in the midst of the pandemic as a necessity to preserve EU resilience and contribute to Europe's societal wellbeing, strategic autonomy and geopolitical stability. It was built on the experience of the COVID-19 crisis and responded to the clear calls of citizens for a stronger EU presence in public health. Unveiled in November 2020, the vision for the Health Union is to ensure that Member States are better prepared to respond to future health crises together, while supporting modern and innovative health policies for all citizens across the EU. Backed by substantial funding from the EU4Health programme, the goals of the European Health Union quickly turned into tangible results.