Event report

The Resolution adopted by the participants of the Discussion on the Future of Europe ”The Voice of the Lithuanian Society in the European Health Union” The European Union was born out of the dramatic context of World War II, with its roots deep in the movement for peace, preservation of life and health. Climate change, global pollution, deterioration of biodiversity, impact on nature of industrial and human activity and pandemics all create challenges today for the security of states, human health, and environmental sustainability. The European integration history that started with the strive for peace has concentrated around the creation of the common market thus far. The issues of free movement of goods, services, people and capital has been dominant in the European agenda. The ministers of finance of the EU member states are in reality the most influential ministries in the EU who take decisions having direct impact on the funding of health and social protection within the states. Europe needs strong state finances, but this alone is not enough. Europeans want more solidarity, better health, greater progress in education, and cleaner environment. Closer European cooperation in health issues and the creation of the European Health Union is a response to the expectations of the citizens. Stronger and more sustainable health of Europeans is one of the basic guarantors of European economic sustainability, which has been clearly illustrated by the fall-out from the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Union treaties that have been prepared in the context of the post-war industrial domination and ideological tensions dictated by the cold war do not comply neither with the citizens’ expectations, nor with the needs of the economic and sustainable development of modern Europe. Health is not even mentioned neither in the Preamble of the Treaty on the European Union nor in its Article 3 on the aims of the EU. The coordinated response to the improvement of the citizen’s health on the EU level is inadequate a Common work within a region or neighbouring regions would be more effective than the efforts of separate sovereign states, in certain areas of health policy Moreover, coordinated scientific research and centralised procurements performed by the Union, has been proven as an EU success in creating and purchasing the COVID-19 vaccines., Cooperation among the states in protection from the infectious diseases, support for the patients with rare diseases, pan-European solutions in support of healthcare workforce are the European Health Policy examples which need to be scaled up and multiplied across the EU. However, Our proposal is to legitimise the European Health Union and include it in the Preamble on the European Union and Article 3 of the Treaty. The proposal on the European Health Union and its legitimization in the EU Treaties shall be presented to the Conference on the Future of the European Union and published in the debate platforms. Recording of the event on You tube is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQA4yMi5UZg