Chair,

Director General,

Excellencies,

Colleagues,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its member states.

The Candidate Countries Turkey, the Republic of North Macedonia[1], Montenegro*, Serbia* and Albania*, the country of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia align themselves with this statement.

From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we as Member States realized that to achieve a healthier, safer, and more equitable world we need a stronger WHO, greater investments in healthcare, and better global systems and rules.

In this spirit, the EU chaired negotiations on resolution 74.7, the adoption of which led, inter alia, to the creation of the Working Group on Strengthening WHO preparedness for and response to health emergencies (WGPR).

During its one-year mandate, the WGPR analysed and prioritized numerous recommendations,  achieved the establishment of a negotiation process for a new Pandemic Agreement, and an agreed process for targeted amendments to IHR. The EU will be actively engaged both in the INB and the process to strengthen and improve IHR provisions, their implementation and compliance. Full implementation of the IHR must be a priority goal for all countries. We support the proposed amendments to Article 59 of the IHR, allowing amending the IHR more swiftly in the future. In our view, these two instruments will constitute the cornerstones of the global health architecture, safeguarding the world in preventing and responding to future pandemics 

The WGPR discussions also sharpened our awareness of critical gaps and the reforms needed to address these, including a strengthened WHO.

We thank the WGPR bureau and all non-state actors having contributed to the WGPR’s deliberations, and we welcome the agreement reached on the final report.

Going forward, the EU advocates that equity coupled with a science- and evidence-based approach must be the leading principles guiding our action. Equity in preparedness and response means, inter alia, delivering on increasing local production, the development of production and skills transfer partnerships and ensuring a strong link between humanitarian and development interventions.

We also welcome the integration of UNEP in the One Health Quadripartite, the development of a Joint Plan of Action on One Health, and the work of the One Health High-Level Expert Panel. All of this will help further operationalise the One Health approach.

To increase coherence, we also welcome the DG’s vision on strengthening the global architecture for health emergency preparedness, response, and resilience. We request that WHO further develop this vision, through further consultations including on implementing the ten key proposals and by working with UN and non-UN agencies and partners.  The SDG 3 Global Action Plan and the ACT Accelerator have shown the indispensability of collaboration. We need to learn from these initiatives.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The pandemic has shown that we must action our lessons learned to be prepared when faced with the next public health threat with pandemic potential. Inaction on the valuable recommendations would be inadmissible given all the lives lost.

The INB and IHR processes, in addition to other work on sustainable financing, governance and architecture, set us up for success. This success is only possible with sustained effort on behalf of member states, civil society, the private sector, and international organizations, with the health of all countries, regions, territories, communities and individuals at heart, leaving no one behind.

Let us not waste this crisis. Our chance to act is now.

[1] The Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.