European Parliament to set up a standing, dedicated health forum

The three biggest parties – Christian democrats (EPP), socialists (S&D) and liberals (Renew Europe) – struck an agreement on the setting up of a new permanent sub-committee on public health in the European Parliament.

The deal was reached on Wednesday morning (18 January) in the Parliament’s Conference of Presidents, which brings together the leaders for each political group and is tasked with establishing new sub-committees.

The mandate of the forthcoming Parliament’s health committee is still open, and the talks will continue in the next few days, an EPP source told EURACTIV.

Once the group leaders agree on the mandate, they will send a draft to the Parliament’s plenary for the final vote expected on 2 February in Brussels, the source continued.

Public health is one of the many competencies of the Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) – the largest in the European House – which is mainly responsible for environmental policy, public health and chemicals legislation, and food safety issues, including veterinary legislation.

Since the middle of the current legislative mandates, political groups started voicing the opinion that the scope is too much for one committee, considering the increased focus on the importance of health and health systems following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past years, two special committees on health issues with a time-limited mandate were established – one dealing with the EU’s beating cancer plan (BECA), the other overseeing lessons learned from the pandemic (COVI).

Although established to deal with specific subjects, special committees cannot adopt legislative or binding texts.

In November 2021, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP),  the largest in the hemicycle, launched the idea of a standing sub-committee on health within ENVI.

Commenting on the news, the EPP group leader, the German MEP Manfred Weber, said that the EU’s cancer plan and the successful vaccine development “made health a priority for years to come”.

The chair of the ENVI committee, the French liberal Pascal Canfin, echoed Weber’s words, saying, “this committee will help step up the work on public health issues following the COVID-19 crisis and the lessons we have learnt since then.”

The new health sub-committee will still be linked to ENVI, which will be considered as the ‘parent committee’ according to the Parliament’s rules of procedures. This means that members of the subcommittee will be chosen from among the members of ENVI.

There are currently three other subcommittees in the European Parliament: human rights (DROI) and security and defence (SEDE), both spawn of the foreign affairs (AFET) committee, and fiscal matters (FISC) which is linked to the committee on economic affairs (ECON).

However, subcommittees do not have their own activities; they only report to their main committee.

In particular, they do not have direct legislative power, meaning that the decision on a regulation or a directive cannot be voted by the sub-committee but only by its main committee.

So, while this might surely give more space for health topics to be discussed in the European Parliament, it would not change much from a practical point of view, as MEPs in the ENVI committee will still have to deal with the bulk of the work.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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