On 31 March, the European Commission has opened the public consultation period on the creation of the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), which is open for feedback until 12 May.
This public consultation, which consists of a targeted questionnaire, is an opportunity to provide the European Commission with inputs on what this new European Health Agency should look like and be responsible for.
Key points:
As you may recall, the creation of this new authority is an integral part of the European Health Union proposal of November 2020.
It aims to equip the European Union (EU) with a new Authority, similar to the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), in order to strengthen the EU’s preparedness and response to serious cross-border health threats and the EU’s global position on bio-defense.
The questionnaire will be available in all EU-languages in the coming weeks.
Please note that this consultation relates specifically to the HERA. The Commission Communication ‘Hera Incubator: Anticipating together the threat of COVID-19 variants’ of February 2021 is not a legislative proposal. Therefore, this consultation does not serve to provide feedback on the work being undertaken by the Commission on mitigating, preventing and preparing for COVID-19 variants described in that Communication.
