HERA, the EU's new Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority

Briefing 24-02-2022

The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic exposed the weaknesses in the EU's preparedness and planning capacities as well as its lack of funding, with much of the EU's initial response being on an ad-hoc basis. Coordination and cooperation between EU Member States was initially often difficult, and took time to get established and start functioning in a structured way. The EU's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) was established by a Commission decision of 16 September 2021, as part of the European health union initiative that also includes legislative proposals reinforcing the roles and mandates of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Medicines Agency. Set up within the European Commission and endowed with €6 billion from the EU's long-term budget, the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework, HERA is expected to strengthen EU health security coordination during the preparedness phase, shorten crisis response times, and reinforce the EU's overall health emergency preparedness and response architecture. While the creation of HERA has been welcomed by European stakeholders active in research, innovation and healthcare, they stress their preference for inclusive governance, and the need to harness the activities so that they reflect the public good dimension of HERA investments. Since HERA is a European Commission entity and not an EU agency, the European Parliament's role, and in particular that of its relevant committees, in assessing and monitoring HERA's effectiveness and efficiency has yet to be defined.