Op-ed: What we expect from the next health commissioner

When Ursula von der Leyen's pick for health commissioner speaks to Parliament, this is what we will want to know.
Former European Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis speaks to reporters about the Health at a Glance report.

By Vytenis Andriukaitis

Vytenis Andriukaitis is an MEP from Lithuania and former health commissioner.

06 Nov 2024

The days between 4 and 12 November will be busy for the European Parliament. MEPs have the task of scrutinising the nominees for the new Commission. We on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) Committee are meeting six of them. 

The one I am most interested in is the nominee for health and animal welfare — Olivér Várhelyi from Hungary. This stems from my training as a medical doctor as well as having served in this position previously — in the Juncker Commission between 2014 and 2019.  

My first task is to understand Várhelyi's approach to the specific objectives set out in the Commission President’s Mission Letter. This is an ambitious list, demonstrating continuity, such as completing the European Health Union, implementing the European Beating Cancer Plan and doing more to tackle antimicrobial resistance — an existential threat to our health systems. There are also new challenges, such as the impact of social media on wellbeing. There is also the risk of the unknown, as the pandemic taught us.  

All these issues will be challenging and involve trade-offs. We in the health community know only too well how hard it can be to make the case for health, especially when we are up against powerful interests. The burgeoning literature on the commercial determinants of health has shown how those who profit from alcohol, junk food and gambling use the same tactics long employed by the tobacco industry.  

The Commissioner-designate must convince us that he can make the case for health, standing up where necessary to those interests. 

As the Mission Letter makes clear, we live in a dangerous and turbulent world. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is at the front of our minds. As a Lithuanian who was born in the gulag and imprisoned by the Soviet authorities, this particular threat is personal. 

But it is hardly the only threat. Extreme weather events that we have experienced recently have brought home the tragic consequences of climate change. I am especially concerned that we haven’t applied the lessons learned in the pandemic.  

I’m delighted that One Health, which brings together the health of humans, animals and the environment, features prominently in the Mission Letter. We need to see how the Commissioner-designate will deliver on that promise. It requires close collaboration across the Commission and its agencies, as well as member states and the international community. It will be a formidable challenge.   

Twenty years ago, the EU adopted a “health is wealth” concept. We are facing a demographic crisis, with falling birthrates and aging populations. We desperately need to keep people in the workforce longer, and we know that poor health is a major reason why they leave it prematurely. 

We also know that healthier people are more productive and, especially with young people, those in better health invest more in their own education. I was disappointed that this issue was missing from Mario Draghi’s competitiveness report and hope that the Commissioner-designate will redress that omission. 

Democracy itself has links to health. New research shows how those who are left behind, in places that experience high levels of “deaths of despair,” turn away from mainstream politics. For them, the social contract is broken. Policies that improve the health of those who feel abandoned will be essential if we are to achieve a democratic revival. 

A last point I would like to hear Várhelyi's views on is animal welfare, which is the other part of his health portfolio. His mission letter instructs him to modernise the rules in this area, addressing sustainability as well as ethical, scientific, and economic considerations. This new role offers an opportunity to work across species, using the One Health approach, to achieve another of the tasks he has been given — reducing antimicrobial resistance, which is a recognized existential threat to humanity.  

The health portfolio is often low on the political pecking order. But when we pause to think about them, we can see that nothing could be further from the truth. The next commissioner has a challenging and important task to take on. 

Our task, as members of the European Parliament, is to make sure it is the right person for the right job.  

Read the most recent articles written by Vytenis Andriukaitis - Rare disease research: European reference networks are off to a good start

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