While the European Union's medical agencies ultimately coped well with the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, they initially underestimated the seriousness of the situation and responded slowly, according to a report by EU auditors. The European Court of Auditors also found shortcomings in collecting data on cases.
The European Court of Auditors (ECA), the European Union's supervisory body, has assessed how two EU medical agencies, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and European Medicines Agency (EMA), coped with the crisis caused by the pandemic.
The published report shows that the agencies ultimately handled the situation well, but there were some shortcomings.
According to the auditors, the ECDC “initially underestimated the seriousness of the situation, considering it unlikely that the virus would reach the EU”. “The decision to take immediate action was made late, on 12 March 2020, three days after Italy introduced the first lockdown on its own,” it was written.
ECDC guidelines on wearing masks and contact tracing were also issued with a delay, only in April and May 2020, i.e. towards the end of the first wave of the pandemic. In addition, several countries did not follow ECDC recommendations, which resulted in maintaining travel restrictions for a long time.
According to the ECA, shortcomings also concerned the collection of data on infections. “Although ECDC began collecting data on the pandemic after its outbreak, the number of infections reported by individual Member States was largely dependent on the testing strategy adopted by a given country.
“The same was true for indicating COVID-19 as the cause of death,” the report said. The auditors said agencies should have used more reliable testing methods, such as analyzing the concentration of the virus in sewage.
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EU medical agencies 'overwhelmed by scale and pace of pandemic'
The EMA fared better, the auditors said, quickly adapting its operations to the crisis. In the early stages of the pandemic, the agency contacted potential developers of vaccines and treatments, took a series of steps to speed up the approval process and helped to combat shortages of medicines during the pandemic. The only criticism it could make is that it failed to effectively promote clinical trials in the EU.
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“EU health agencies – like all of us – were overwhelmed by the scale and speed of the COVID-19 pandemic. Four years have passed since then, and we must build on the experience gained during the pandemic in the EU to ensure that history does not repeat itself,” said Joao Leao of the ECA, presenting the report.
The EU is still trying to plug the gaps that have become apparent during the pandemic, the auditors noted. The mandates of the ECDC and EMA have been clarified and expanded, and changes to EU pharmaceutical legislation are intended to speed up the procedures for issuing marketing authorisations for new medicines.
Problems with the functioning of EU medical agencies
However, the ECA warned that at the same time, the organisational framework of EU medical agencies has become more complex. For example, in 2021, the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) was created, responsible for overseeing the development, production and distribution of medicines and vaccines.
The problem is that some of HERA's duties and powers overlap with ECDC's. “To operate effectively, EU medical agencies must work closely together,” the auditors said.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament held a meeting of the Environment, Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) on monkeypox (Mpox), which WHO considered a global health threat. The chairman of the EP Health Subcommittee (SANT), MEP Adam Jarubas, who took part in the debate, noted that “in order to avoid the mistakes of 2019 and 2020, the EU must be able to independently assess the threat and respond adequately.”
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