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Emerging priorities such as defence and competitiveness are increasingly drawing resources away from other sectors, raising concerns that health \u2013 a \u00a0key focus of the previous EU mandate \u2013 may pay the highest price in the upcoming long-term EU budget.<\/p>\n
The European Commission is expected to unveil its proposal for the next seven-year budget in July. However, early leaks<\/strong><\/a> and mounting speculation suggest that the dedicated health fund could be merged with broader funding instruments, or potentially scrapped altogether.<\/p>\n Although health policy is primarily the responsibility of national governments, EU member states allocated \u20ac5.3 billion for health through the EU4Health programme in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This marked the first time a standalone health budget was created at the EU level.<\/p>\n Prior to this, EU health initiatives operated with much smaller resources: The health programme for 2014\u20132020 had a total budget of just \u20ac450 million, significantly less than EU4Health.<\/p>\n Since its launch, EU4Health has financed a range of initiatives, such as a recent<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u20ac1.3 million project to address the nursing shortage across Europe by promoting the profession in countries most affected.<\/p>\n Yet many fear that the programme will not survive the next programming cycle. Even some EU officials have\u00a0hinted<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that EU4Health may have been a one-time measure.<\/p>\n A political battle for health funding<\/strong><\/p>\n Lawmakers have raised alarms about the potential disappearance of EU4Health and its impact on flagship initiatives from the previous term, such as the Beating Cancer Plan.<\/p>\n Croatian MEP Tomislav Sokol pointed out the importance of maintaining a dedicated health budget since health has become one of the most important topics in the EU after the pandemic.<\/p>\n For this reason, the EU has opted to create a separate health programme within the bloc\u2019s budget to support initiatives like the EU health data space<\/strong><\/a> and the European reference networks.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re not able to protect this, I\u2019m afraid this will all be diluted and absorbed by some other big funds in the budget, and we will lose this focus on healthcare that we have now,\u201d he told Euronews.<\/p>\n Sokol also cited newer priorities like the Critical Medicines Act<\/strong><\/a>, arguing that they, too, will require substantial EU funding.<\/p>\n “Of course, healthcare remains largely a national responsibility, but EU support is needed to create a level playing field across member states,” he added.<\/p>\n Industry voices join the call<\/strong><\/p>\n