“General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2027 - all sections”

The Committee on Public Health calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

1.Calls on the Commission, Member States and relevant stakeholders to focus the 2027 budget on EU added value in public health: health security, cancer, mental health, digital health, critical medicines, antimicrobial resistance, prevention and innovation, while fully respecting Member State competences and avoiding fragmentation of funding;

2.Calls for public health to be treated as a strategic autonomy, security and competitiveness priority in Union funding; stresses that investments should improve access in underserved regions, including islands, rural, remote and outermost regions, and support interoperable cross-border tools; reiterates the importance of cross border accessible and affordable healthcare, cross border mobility of patients, in particular transplant patients, mobility of health professionals and coordinated crisis and pandemic response mechanisms across the EU as well as with global partners;

3.Stresses that external health spending should be targeted at preparedness, surveillance and resilient partner-country health systems, including access to essential medicines and vaccines, where this helps preventing cross-border threats and supports the Union’s health security and humanitarian responsibilities; calls for funding for treatment of patients from conflict zones within Union territory, as part of health international development and humanitarian policy;

4.Notes with concern that, in the draft budget, the total EU4Health commitments decrease from 687.9 million EUR in 2026 to 635.3 million EUR in 2027, representing a reduction of around 7.6% and remaining below the level needed to meet growing public health needs, demographic pressures and programme’s core objectives; calls on the Council and the Parliament to agree increasing the draft budget allocation for the EU4Health Programme with a particular focus on health security, prevention and innovation; stresses that the current level of funding for the implementation of the Critical Medicines Act and the pharmaceutical package risks limiting the effectiveness of these initiatives in addressing shortages, diversifying supply chains and strengthening the Union’s strategic autonomy in health; calls for dedicated and adequately resourced EU4Health actions supporting critical medicines and medical devices, including manufacturing diversification in the Union and its neighbourhood, enhanced collaborative joint procurement, and better transparency on supply chains and stock levels;

5.Calls for stronger coordination between EU4Health, ESF+ and cohesion funding to train, upskill and retain, also in underserved regions, health professionals particularly focussed on primary care and mental health, ; insists on clear key performance indicators, transparency and avoidance of duplication between EU programmes;

6.Encourages the mobilisation of additional resources through alternative channels, such as InvestEU, STEP and Digital Europe, provided that public health outcomes and patient access remain central criteria; stresses the need for transparent, result oriented public health spending, with a particular focus on mental health and neurological disorders, digital health, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), zoonotic diseases and non- communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney disease, liver disease, rare diseases and cancer, as well as primary care, promotion of healthy lifestyles and sustained investment in the health workforce; highlights the importance of a life course approach to public health that supports citizens, including those within the autism spectrum, through appropriate institutions for care and support from childhood to adulthood;

7.Underlines that combating AMR requires dedicated funding to support research into innovative solutions, including new antimicrobials, diagnostics and alternatives to antimicrobials, as well as strong infection prevention and control measures; stresses the need to address AMR prevention through investments in data sharing about hospital infections; emphasises that investing in high quality public healthcare systems, including effective infection prevention and control, adequate staffing, modern equipment, clinical competencies and accessibility for the health workforce and patients, is key to reducing health inequalities across the Union;

8.Calls for budgetary support for concrete measures that improve working conditions, professional development and retention of healthcare workers, especially in underserved regions, and for better use of EU funds to support modern, digitally enabled and community-based care;

9.Calls for the strengthening, expansion and adequate resourcing of European Reference Networks (ERNs) for rare and complex diseases, including sustained support for their digital infrastructure, cross border case consultation and integration into national health systems; underlines the need to improve equitable and prompt diagnosis, access to specialised expertise and continuity of care for rare disease patients across the Union; supports, in this context, the establishment of a dedicated EU structure, such as a European agency or centre for rare diseases, to bring together research, screening, data, registries, best practices and treatment pathways, and to maximise the added value of the coordination at EU level in the field of rare diseases;

10.Welcomes the proposed increases of Union contributions to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), while stressing that resources must be commensurate with the new tasks stemming from serious cross border health threats legislation, the transparency rules in the food chain and the pharmaceutical package; calls for a staffing and capability review of ECDC and EMA in light of their expanded mandates, so as to avoid structural under resourcing and to ensure that agencies can provide high quality, timely scientific advice and coordination;

11.Welcomes the continued support for the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), including rescEU, which contributes to medical evacuation, stockpiles of emergency medical equipment and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) preparedness; underlines that health related capacities under UCPM should be adequately funded in order to ensure swift deployment in crises; stresses the importance of close coordination between UCPM, DG HERA, EU4Health and national civil protection and health authorities to avoid overlaps and ensure efficient use of resources;

The rapporteur for opinion declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not include in his opinion input from interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies, to be listed in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.