Chair,

Director-General,

Excellencies,

Colleagues,

This statement is made on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

The candidate countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina[*] align themselves with this statement.

Strengthening PPR and WHO´s central role in global health emergency preparedness and response is an EU priority.

The EU has and continues to be actively engaged in processes to learn the lessons from the pandemic and strengthen the global health architecture.

The EU welcomes WHO´s leadership on shaping a global health architecture, in which the organization plays a central and coordinating role.

The EU sees the discussion on the WHO’s 10 proposals as a dynamic exercise, which aims at identifying relevant PPR topics for discussion by Member States, who ultimately decide whether and how to take any of these individual topics forward, in collaboration with the concerned government sectors.

As to the further development of the 10 proposals, we want to underline the importance of strong and resilient health systems as the necessary foundation for preparedness and response to health emergencies. The global health architecture should not only focus on health security, but it needs also to support Member States to advance, as appropriate, the strengthening of national health systems, including essential public health functions.

The EU welcomes the on-going implementation of four of these proposals: negotiations on a pandemic agreement and on amendments to the IHR, as well as on the establishment of the Pandemic Fund, and notes the work on preparedness reviews and monitoring, and we will also participate constructively in discussions and in any further decisions on the other proposals.

The EU calls for in-depth discussion on selected topics, combining inclusive multilateral dialogue deep dives before any other steps can be taken.

We look forward to a useful outcome of the General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Prevention, Preparedness and Response, including on the role of the entire UN system, to further support work in this important area while creating synergies and promoting coherence.

[*] North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.