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WHO 152nd Session of the Executive Board - Item 24.3 - Standing Committee on Health Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response - EU Statement

01.02.2023 Press and information team of the Delegation to the UN in Geneva

Chair,

Director-General,

Excellencies,

Colleagues,

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

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

We welcome the establishment of the Standing Committee on Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Health Emergencies.

The creation of this Committee is one of the major reforms reflecting the lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic. It is expected to strengthen WHO's central role in the international health security architecture as a new governance structure to review, provide guidance and, as appropriate, make recommendations to the Executive Board on ongoing work regarding policy proposals on pandemic and emergency preparedness and response.

The Standing Committee may also invite relevant experts as deemed appropriate, including from regional organizations. This will contribute to strengthen links with the regional level, in particular with the WHO regional offices.

It will also be important for the Standing Committee to establish links with other bodies including the "One Health" high-level expert panel and the "Quadripartite Alliance" to ensure a fully operational "One Health" approach to prevention, preparedness and response.

Regarding the misalignment between the terms of membership of the Standing Committee, vis-à-vis the normal cycle of committee membership, the EU will support option 1 proposed by the Secretariat in extending term of membership of the three members of the Standing Committee whose terms would otherwise expire in December 2024, until WHA 78 in May 2025; and similarly, extend the current terms of the Chair and Vice-Chair by 5 months.

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