Covid-19: The EU wants to create a strategic reserve of medical equipment

Text by: Pierre Benazet

Faced with the immense need for medical equipment and medicines, the EU countries have already launched a joint call for tenders. The European Commission wants to go further and create a strategic reserve of medical equipment to be able to help States according to their needs, which will make it possible to circumvent the export bans decreed by some.

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From our correspondent in Brussels ,

The EU strategic reserve will include laboratory supplies, vaccines and medicines, personal protective equipment such as reusable masks. There will also be specific equipment for intensive care units such as respirators.

Janez Lenarčič, European Commissioner for Crisis Management, said that EU countries were largely unaware that their stocks were scarce. “ Almost all countries seem to have been taken by surprise and this should, in my opinion, serve as a lesson for the future. However, export bans within the European Union undermine both the solidarity on which the European Union should be based and mechanisms like that of civil protection. This is why the European Commission calls for the lifting of these bans, ”he explains.

A strategic reserve on a voluntary basis

The strategic reserve will be received and stored by the voluntary countries, there are currently half a dozen. The European Commission plans to finance 90% of purchases and puts 50 million euros on the table.

The usual European mechanism in the event of a crisis makes it possible to meet needs by satisfying the demands of the various countries; this will not be the case with this strategic reserve, the use of which the European Union will itself decide.

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• Coronavirus
• Health and Medicine
• European Union