Bitter necessity: Health Union and a healthy Union

Like many Europeans, the Dutch feel no love for the European Union. This is a painful but understandable conclusion from a recent study by Ipsos. The EU needs to go to the doctor quickly and get a beating heart full of love because Brussels still seems cold and chilly to the European voter, writes Toine Manders.

Toine Manders is a Dutch member of the European Parliament, a member of the Internal Market Committee, and the special envoy for older people.

The most frequently asked question is: “What does the EU do for me, for my mother-in-law, for my grandchild?” Impressive terms are often used: ‘innovation’, ‘competitiveness’, ‘strategic autonomy’, but with all due respect this doesn’t cut through to the voter.

There are plenty of deep technical discussions with many highly educated people in Brussels, but are we not losing sight of practical, tangible and creative simple solutions that could make the heart beat faster? 

Take, for example, the increasing shortage of medicines in the Union. There are millions of Europeans who regularly use medicines and are therefore personally affected by these shortages.

The European Parliament voted last month on a new law on medicines for human use. The goal? AAA: medication must be available, accessible and affordable. The competitiveness of the EU pharmaceutical industry must also be maintained. 

Online pharmacy

Once again we hear the term ‘competitiveness’ again. Yes, of course it is very important that we have a health union and that European member states do not compete with each other, but compete together on the global market. Yet something is missing: a practical and tangible solution. 

Why is there no discussion in Brussels about the importance of a European online pharmacy? In the Netherlands, as in a number of other EU member states, we are already familiar with the idea of online pharmacies.

These can help tackle shortages by offering a wider variety of medicines, delivering medicines to your home and giving the opportunity to order elsewhere in the EU – where the medication is in stock. This is especially useful for people who have difficulty going to the pharmacy. 

Needless to say, it is extremely important to ensure that online pharmacies are properly regulated, with physically present pharmacists, so that people receive reliable and affordable medicines.

Prevention first 

A creative long-term solution to solve the shortage of medication is unfortunately also neglected in Brussels: preventive healthcare. The American National Institutes of Health came up with shocking figures: preventive interventions between the ages of 55 and 75 can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by 70 to 90 percent. 

In the European Union, approximately 60 million people live with cardiovascular disease. The total cost of this is now at least 200 billion euros annually across the Union.

If we focused more on prevention and a healthy lifestyle, we would keep the people around us healthier and we would also save a lot of money. Given the increasing costs in other areas, such as defence, these extra billions of euros are very welcome. 

It is difficult to achieve real breakthroughs in the power machine of Brussels: it takes time to turn around a tanker. However, there is not much time, because the European citizens, including the Dutch, who feel no love for the European Union will go to the polls in early June, if they go at all, to vote for a new European Parliament.