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EC press conference by European Commissioner Jozef SÍKELA on the Global Health Initiative

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Thank you, Commissioner, let me also add that we have now published a press release,

a fact sheet, and the communication of this initiative can be found online as well.

So we have interpretation in all EU languages, you can ask questions in your language as well.

We can start with questions in the room if there are any, raise your hands. Magnus. Yo, yo, yo, yo. Hi, Magnus with your active. A few questions.

First of all, thank you, Commissioner, for the presentation.

Could you just clarify for us how this specifically is different from the, the,

the existing global health strategy from, I believe, a few years ago.

And then if we allow ourselves to slide slightly off topic, We've been covering a directive,

how a tender backed by the EU for through among other initiatives,

the Global Gateway Initiative, is funding buses for Senegal's capital Dakar.

Currently, it looks like a Chinese company who has found,

has been found to be in violation of the foreign subsidies regulation.

Close to winning that exact tender worth of upwards of €320 million.

So, I, I just wanted to get your, your, your, your, your take,

on that and, and maybe exactly what will you do in the next MFF.

To, well, to, to change this if you want to change it.

And, and secondly, if I can ask,

is poverty eradication still the primary objective of the EU's,

development policy? Thank you.

Well, Mr President, the global landscape is changing. Everything is becoming more transactional.

This is to react to your first question, why now and what is the difference?

The scale and complexity of the current global health challenges and the gaps require a collective and multilateral response, and the EU has been and will remain, a credible,

reliable, principled and predictable partner on global health, but of course, there is a gap,

and the EU cannot fill the gap left behind by other partners.

But it will not step back from its own commitments to health,

so that is why the Global Health Resilience Initiative puts forward.

The EU offer as a qualitative offer, going beyond the NDC,

Global Europe, mobilizing Horizon Europe, EU4Health, etc.

In a way that will further reinforce coherence between internal and external actions.

It also lays the foundations for our global health action to be rolled out in the next multiannual financial framework,

and why now?

Yes, we are putting this plan on the table now because we want to shape the global health agenda.

It is about making the Existing global health system more coherent, coordinated and effective.

We want to support countries in building stronger and mainly more self-reliant health systems,

while improving preparedness, surveillance, supply chains and access to the health products.

When it comes to Senegal, and I've been together with my dear fellow Magnus Brunner in Senegal recently.

In the case in this particular case,

the European Investment Bank is in charge of the tender process. The process is currently underway. It is not yet completed.

We are, I am following it really very closely.

I had a conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs from, from Paris during the G7 development meeting, As you can imagine,

we have been clear to both the Senegalese authorities and the EIB on our expectation on the use of EU funds.

And when it comes to procurement, of course, when it comes to basically our Procurement rules, so,

of course, we have a clear preference for,

for basically, European and partner countries companies. This is reflected in our procurement rules.

For tenders managed directly by the EU, participation is generally restricted,

meaning that companies from G20 countries outside the EU are in principle,

not eligible.

However,

many EU projects are implemented indirectly through partners like the European Investment Bank or other development finance institutions which apply their own procurement frameworks.

We recognize that There is huge room for improvement and we are already taking steps.

We have proposed a more strategic and nuanced approach to procurement under the next Multiannual Financial Framework,

including measures to strengthen the European preference.

And to your last question, of course it matters.

This is one of our core values, but we simply believe that investing Jobs, helping our partner countries to create value locally,

to add value locally, to become a part of the regional and global supply chains,

is a more effective way rather than sending money.

So our focus is on sustainable investments, sustainable industrialization.

On job creation, on the value chain creation, on new value adding in our partner countries,

in order to help them to create their own foundation,

tackling the fight against poverty. Thank you. Now we'll move online. We have a question for Mosse. Yes, thank you, Liam.

I would like to ask, a question related to, an event which took place on Cyprus, last month, on the use of antibiotics in agriculture, say, to farm animals, which leads to what is called, antimicrobial resistance, and that seems to be a very serious problem,

I think for human beings, And we know from the figures that the, the overuse of antibiotics vary very much by mem member state,

but most of it goes obviously in some countries to farm animals.

I would like to ask the commissioner whether this is a health issue which is addressed.

In this new initiative and where we can expect that something would happen in order to prevent this,

do something about it, during the Cyprus EU presidency. Thank you.

Thank you, I mentioned the five pillars of the health initiative, so, so basically I think that the question is more related to my dear fellow commissioner for For agriculture, the charge of health for agriculture,

it's not, it's not a question directly for, for the commissioner, so we,

we can get back to you, Moseley, do we have any other questions related to today's announcement? Yes.

Hello, Claudia with Politico, thanks for taking my question.

When Commissioner von der Leyen announced, Commission President von der Leyen announced this initiative last year, she mentioned,

tackling health disinformation and misinformation particularly as one of the reasons that, this was coming forward.

I know you mentioned that this is part of the initiative.

Can you go a bit more into details on what are some of the initiative and new actions to specifically tackle health mis and disinformation,

and how, why this is an important part of this. Thank you.

You are, you are asking about how to tackle the disinformation.

Of course, we will basically share the relevant scientific data.

As I said, we want to promote a more scientific approach and we also plan to support all initiatives which are basically directly dealing with misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and then, then, so,

there will be also like, concrete, I would say investments in, in, in this agenda,

on the global level and also, on, on, on, on, on the, on some of the country levels. We have Magnus. Thank you.

Maybe just a short follow-up and then actually another question if you let me.

You say that there's gonna be more European preference baked into the MFF, the next one. What exactly does that look like?

And, and if you do that,

aren't you essentially also then asking recipients of EU aid to pay more for, more expensive.

European product because that is indeed the case in the in the Senegalese case where there is a European bidder for the case,

but it is a vastly more expensive product, vastly more expensive bid they have put forward. So that's, that, that's my follow-up question.

On a different topic, I understand you're going to Greenland next week.

You have talked about an investment package that is worth 150 million if memory serves me right.

In the recent days, Greenlandic in news has been overflowing with, with the, with the story of,

of American man who went around asking citizens to,

sign a petition to, essentially have the, the Greenland join the US.

The EU is now also, ramping up its investment into Greenland.

What exactly is your message, to, the, not only the Greenlandic authorities,

but also the American ones by showing up in, in Greenland next week? Thank you.

Well, going back to your first question, of course we have the tools, yeah, because we, and, and the meanwhile, even the African leaders or, or basically representatives of the countries across the globe from Asia are confirming that they,

they are aware that they become like dumping so,

so the market for dumping products which China is not able to place somewhere else. So it has two dimensions.

The first one is, basically how to, How to ensure that the WTO rules will be followed,

and how,

basically to protect European companies against unfair damp competition from third parties.

The second issue is that we are appreciated for our standards, and very often this is not about only the single product or the single service level,

this is about a comprehensive offer and we basically want to avoid cherry picking,

so we want to avoid that we are preparing a financing structure.

But then basically the partner country is taking everywhere.

So we will go more towards a comprehensive offer approach, and this is our value proposition.

This is not about conditionalities,

this is about the self confidence that we are offering sustainable, high quality.

European standards, which are accepted also by European citizens, and this is about equal, this is about the standards and this is about sustainability, and this is the way we want to adjust the procurement rules, and when it comes to Greenland,

I can assure you that this is Well, first of all, and let me stress that the EU Greenland partnership is right at the top of my agenda,

and I am having regular contacts with the representatives of Greenland.

I had a very good conversation with the Prime Minister during the Munich Security Conference.

Next week, you are right, I'm traveling to meet the government, including the Prime Minister Nielsen again,

to take part in the future Greenland conference and to join.

The policy dialogue between the EU and Greenland.

This mission will also be an important part of the preparations for the renewed Arctic strategy,

which I am leading together with Special Adviser Jyrki Katainen.

I want to hear from my Greenlandic counterparts, from the private sector, from civil society and young people,

about the main challenges they see on the ground and feed that directly into our work.

The investment package and its progress will also be on the agenda.

The final package itself, however,

will be presented by the President during her mission at a later stage. Thank you, Commissioner. Do we have any other questions?

It's not the case, and not online, so I thank you very much for your participation, and I wish you a nice afternoon.

Media information
ID I-289579
Date 13/05/2026
Duration 15:22
Personalities Jozef Síkela
Location Berlaymont press room, Brussels
Institution European Commission
Views 177