On 7 December, the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council configuration (EPSCO) gather together to discuss Health Issues in Europe.
During this meeting Health Ministers adopted a recommendation on strengthened cooperation against vaccine-preventable diseases and exchanges their views on Tackling vaccine hesitancy at EU and national level: Challenges and possibilities in a digitalised world.
Ministers also took note of the progress report from the Austrian Presidency on the proposed Regulation on Health Technology Assessment, which creates a framework for joint assessment at EU level by member states’ bodies of the relative clinical effectiveness of certain medicines and medical devices.
The Commission presented to ministers the key findings of its report “Health at a Glance: Europe 2018”, which was published on 22 November for the launch of the second State of Health in the EU cycle. The report presents comparative analyses of the health status of EU citizens and the performance of the health systems of the 28 EU member states, 5 candidate countries and 3 EFTA countries. It will be followed in 2019 with the publication of Country Health Profiles and their Companion Report.
The Commission also provided information on the implementation of the Directive 2011/32/EU on falsified medicinal products that is due to begin on 9 February 2019. From that date all economic operators throughout the supply chain will need to scan medicine packages to very their authenticity.
The Commission encourages the Member States to use these last two months before the entry into application of the safety features to renew their efforts to ensure all stakeholders are ready. It is particularly important that by 9 February 2019:
