Dear President Ursula von der Leyen, 01-05-2020 Dear President Charles Michel,

Our European community is undergoing significant changes in part due to the coronavirus epidemic. There is no question that one of the most important tasks of the in the coming period is to re-think our healthcare preparedness, invest in people, and make the strengthening of welfare and social systems a priority.

EU countries hold primary responsibility for organising and delivering health services and medical care. EU health policy therefore just serves to complement national policies and ensure health protection in all EU policies. The COVID19 epidemic already proved that the EU has to revise the priorities in the next EU budget (2021-2027). Historical times call for historical measures.  The EU Health Programme had a budget of €449 million in the period 2014-2020, and on the basis of the current proposal, this amount will be less in the next EU budget. There will be no substantive Health Programme in the upcoming MFF; instead, there will be a ‘health strand’ in an expanded European Social Fund (ESF+) dedicated to EU action in health, under the budget heading “Cohesion and Values.” The is proposing a main budget for this new Health Strand in the ESF+ of approximately €413 million. The reduction is about 8 percent.

We urge the European Commission and the European Council to ensure the support of health policies and health systems as a new priority in the next EU budget!  We propose to significantly increase the budget of the new ‘health strand’ in the ESF+! We propose to re-think and expand the use of this EU instrument! Based on the experience of the epidemic and the challenges to our health systems, we also propose to increase the budgets of those other key financial instruments (such as social fund, research, digital market, regional- and cohesion funds) that support health-related activities and policy mechanisms! We propose to pay increased attention to reducing inequities and inequalities between European health systems and examine the possibility of setting up minimum standards in public healthcare on EU level!

The right to physical and mental health is a fundamental human right for all European citizens. One of the great duties of our time is to ensure this for all.

MEP István Ujhelyi (Hungary / S&D) co-signatories: , Croatia/S&D; Karen Melchior, Denmark/Renew; Csaba Molnár, Hungary/S&D; Klára Dobrev, Hungary/S&D; Sándor Rónai, Hungary/S&D; Attila Ara-Kovács, Hungary/S&D; , Slovenia/S&D; , /S&D; , Malta/S&D; Tiemo Wölken, Germany/S&D; Jarosław Duda, Poland/EPP; , Greece/GUE; , /S&D; , Romania/S&D; , Austria/S&D; José Gusmão, Portugal/GUE; , Romania/S&D; , Portugal/GUE; Terry Reintke, Germany/Greens; Konstantinos Arvanitis, Greece/GUE; Kateřina Konečná, Czech Republic/GUE; Dan- Stefan Motreanu, Romania/EPP; , Italy/S&D; Tomislav Sokol, Croatia/EPP; Alviina Alametsä, Finland/GUE; Eva Maydell, Bulgaria/EPP; Boguslaw Liberadzki, Poland/S&D; Cindy Franssen, Belgium/EPP