Today the COVID-19 epidemics are tangible reality which brings us to a new phase where we have to deal with intra EU transmission cases.
In Hungary we have our first cases, which come by no surprise, as it was also a matter of time that we also have to step from preparedness to mitigation responses.
The Hungarian healthcare system is ready for the appearance of the COVID-19 disease. We have sufficient laboratory and treatment capacities in order to provide sufficient protection.
To secure this readiness, good cooperation at international and EU level played an important role as we had more time to strengthen our capacities. WHO coordination, ECDC guidance, the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, the work in the Health Security Committee, and the IPCR mechanism were instrumental. The Commission Taskforce set up by President von der Leyen is also reassuring that the Commission is aware of the cross sectoral nature of challenges.
We deem, that current mechanisms provide for sufficient cooperation, and we have reached the point where we should avoid generating further workload by setting up new horizontal coordination mechanisms.
We agree that today, in order to maintain good responsive capacities, strengthened EU cooperation is needed.
In this respect, I would like to highlight the following areas:
- cross-sectoral monitoring of the situation is essential in order to ensure smooth continuity of our everyday life;
- it is important that we successfully implement joint procurement procedures, such as the one in the field of personal protective equipment;
- travel advice provided for EU passengers and measures applied at entry points should also be coordinated,
- we need increased efforts to monitor the integrity of global value chains, having particular regard to the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. We call upon the Commission, the European Medicines Agency that, together with national authorities and stakeholders, to implement efficient mechanisms to ensure safe supply of pharmaceutical ingredients;
- we still need to maintain coordinated and reassuring communication towards the public and healthcare professionals, in order to avoid panic.
We do not know how long we have to face this situation, but Hungary remains fully committed to EU level cooperation in order to better protect our citizens.
