Last week, the European Commission published its 2021-2022 annual work programme for the landmark EU4Health programme.
The undersigned civil society organisations welcome the ambitious budget of EUR 312 million for crisis preparedness, disease prevention, health systems, the healthcare workforce, and digitalisation setting a record new level of EU investment in the area of health, which the organisations had actively campaigned for in the past years.
However, we deeply regret that the operating grant mechanism for European health and patient NGOs has been discontinued, despite this mechanism having explicitly been included in the EU4Health programme and in the Financial regulation. The unilateral decision by the European Commission to abandon this type of operational funding in the 2021 Work Plan will have a detrimental impact on the ability of organisations to contribute meaningfully to implement the objectives of the EU4Health programme and to promote networking, capacity building, and the exchange of good practices between national organisations and associations.
Our organisations therefore call on HaDEA/the European Commission:
As part of the 2021 calls for proposals, to:
- Ensure that a broader range of calls are opened up to allow for applications and contributions from NGOs;
As part of the 2022 Work Programme to:
- Restore Operating Grants as a financing mechanism to provide a strong foundation for the contribution of NGOs;
- Ensure that a broader range of calls are opened up to allow for applications and contributions from NGOs;
- Engage meaningfully with NGOs and the European Parliament on decisions on the future of the EU4Health programme, respecting the provisions of the EU4Health regulation.