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European Parliament
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What is said in the sittings, update by update, the latest first. Each update opens the video at the second it was said.
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
The rapporteur presents the draft opinion on psychosocial risks at work, shadows call for an EU directive and address AI‑driven workloads and permanent availability, and additional members and the rapporteur discuss vulnerable workers, recruitment practices, and the need for a balanced but effective EU approach ahead of the amendment deadline.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
The committee examines the draft opinion on the National and Regional Partnership Fund, with rapporteur Negrescu and shadows arguing for a dedicated health chapter and a 4% health investment target, members debating fund efficiency and impacts on farmers, and the Commission outlining the merged plans’ design and health dimension before the rapporteur’s closing and amendment deadline announcement.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
Chair Bosse opens the SANT meeting, adopts the agenda and minutes, and leads the presentation and full vote on the opinion addressing gender inequalities in health, including compromises, amendments and final roll‑call adoption.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
IMCO and health MEPs question how reduced audits and downgraded notified‑body involvement will still prevent scandals like PIP, call to preserve unannounced inspections, seek greater centralization for certain devices, faster and more transparent AI approvals, and mandatory sex‑ and age‑disaggregated evidence to address bias. Commissioner Várhelyi confirms unannounced inspections and safety standards remain, outlines new 110‑day AI approval targets, digital traceability via EuDaMed, better commercialization incentives in the next MFF, and gender‑sensitive prevention work, after which the Chair formally closes the debate and the SANT committee meeting, announcing the next session.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
Vice‑President Jerković opens the medical devices/IVD item and Commissioner Várhelyi presents the simplification package aimed at cutting costs and delays while preserving safety, including risk‑based classification changes, lighter reporting, harmonized notified‑body timelines, AI‑Act alignment, digital submissions, and SME‑sensitive fee rules. Rapporteur Schenk and the first shadows and practitioners welcome simplification but press on notified‑body capacity, safety after past scandals, divergent assessments, EMA vs national roles, low‑risk software and AI safeguards, PFAS coherence, SME support, affordability for public systems and incentives for reusable devices, prompting detailed Commission replies on fees, timelines, software classes, AI oversight, expert panels, and single‑use trends.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
The Chair presents the committee’s fact‑finding mission to Cyprus, detailing meetings and visits on access to medicines, rare diseases, workforce shortages, mental health, ageing and AI in healthcare, underlining the role of EU4Health after 2027. Nikos Papandreou showcases Cyprus’s mandatory premarital genetic screening for thalassemia as a best‑practice example of EU‑relevant prevention policy.
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
A far‑right MEP promotes unsupported claims linking COVID vaccines and cancer, prompting other MEPs to rebut disinformation and refocus on cohesion, EU competences and concrete tools (Critical Medicines Act, pharma package, regulatory sandboxes, patient involvement) to reduce disparities, strengthen tobacco control and secure funding in the MFF. The Commission (DG SANTE) reacts positively to Parliament’s draft report, accepts Court of Auditors’ recommendations and stresses achievements and monitoring needs, before rapporteur Voiculescu closes the debate by calling for political accountability on screening, HPV vaccination, tobacco control and effective use of EU health innovation and AI.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
The Chair opens the SANT meeting, adopts the agenda and gives the floor to rapporteur Voiculescu, followed by shadow rapporteurs and key groups outlining their political priorities on the Beating Cancer Plan, including prevention, funding, inequalities, rare cancers, lifestyle factors, and screening and vaccination. Speakers highlight East–West gaps, budget cuts to EU health programmes, rural access, and the balance between competitiveness and strong public‑health regulation on tobacco, alcohol, diet and early detection.
In this chapter
Co‑rapporteurs call for a rapid Parliament position, using the Biotech Act as a horizontal framework across multiple laws with broader biotech definitions and mutual recognition, while the Commissioner and Chair insist on resolving translation delays and underline Parliament’s political support and urgency to advance the file.
In this chapter
In a second exchange, MEPs press for an impact assessment of the €10 billion plan, stronger Horizon alignment and Capital Markets Union links, stricter enforcement of pricing and reimbursement timelines, reduced market fragmentation and clearer coordination between the Biotech Act, pharma package and Critical Medicines Act, with the Commissioner outlining planned impact work, enforcement of the Transparency Directive, joint procurement options and measures to support startup ecosystems in all member states.
In this chapter
Commissioner Várhelyi replies on rare diseases, the EIB de‑risking pilot, SPC extension as a tradable incentive under strict ‘Made in Europe’ conditions, prevention objectives, ethics and safety safeguards, territorial balance and Hungarian universities, and justifies SPC criteria and impact versus alternative incentive tools.
In this chapter
Co‑rapporteurs from SANT and ITRE, then MEPs from several groups, welcome the Biotech Act but raise concerns on orphan drugs, rare diseases, internal‑market fragmentation, safety and ethics, SPC design, SME access to finance, biomanufacturing scale‑up, skills, and equal access to EU funds including for Hungarian universities.
In this chapter
The Chair opens the joint SANT–ITRE meeting, sets out the procedure and places the European Biotech Act within the wider health package, followed by Commissioner Várhelyi’s strategic presentation on global biotech competition, clinical trials, AI, and the planned €10 billion EIB Biotech EU investment programme.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
MEPs question Professor Vermeulen on the added value of the exposome concept versus One Health, implications of mixture effects for EU chemicals and health policy, funding and data needs, the role of AI and digital twins, and communication to citizens, with emphasis on prevention returns and reducing inequalities; the Chair then formally closes the exposome exchange and announces a break before the joint ITRE–TRAN meeting with Commissioner Vălean.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
The Chair opens the STOA ‘Excellence in Health Sciences’ exposome session and introduces Professor Vermeulen, who presents the exposome concept, its implications for shifting EU prevention and regulatory paradigms, the need for integrated data infrastructures and large cohorts, and the potential health, inequality‑reduction and productivity gains from a ‘human exposome moonshot’ and dedicated exposome data space.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
The Commission details the current legal and policy framework, the role and challenges of European Reference Networks, new pharmaceutical and Critical Medicines Act tools, research funding and data initiatives, and signals openness to Parliament’s input, after which the rapporteur closes by urging a strong regulation and the Chair announces the amendment deadline and transition to the next agenda item.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
MEPs from EPP, the Left, Renew and PFE outline their positions on a coherent EU‑level rare disease framework, addressing late diagnosis, inequalities, research gaps, data infrastructure, newborn screening, genomic profiling, economic and regulatory incentives for orphan medicines, and the balance between EU action and national competences, with the Chair also linking the file to the Biotech Act and pharma package.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
The Chair opens the SANT meeting, announces the new rapporteur for an EMPL opinion on psychosocial risks, and introduces the draft legislative own‑initiative report on an EU Rare Disease Action Plan, followed by the rapporteur’s presentation of the proposed EU regulation, key objectives on diagnosis, ERNs, data, research, patient involvement and funding needs.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
MEPs question EU competence, incentives, HTA, data standards and screening for rare diseases, followed by an expert panel on ORPHA coding, interoperability, newborn screening and EU‑level guidance, and concluding with the formal closure of the SANT workshop and announcement of next steps.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
The workshop is opened in the context of Parliament’s upcoming own‑initiative report on an EU rare disease action plan, with experts detailing the European rare disease data ecosystem and then presenting the clinical, socio‑economic burden and case for EU‑level criteria on genomic newborn screening and a binding rare disease plan.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
Committee members examine extensive amendments to the EU cardiovascular disease strategy, debate the design and budget of a health window within the European Competitiveness Fund, then receive a trilogue debrief on the Critical Medicines Act, vote pilot health projects and formally approve the inter‑institutional agreement on the pharmaceutical package.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
The chair verifies absence of further business, announces the date of the next Public Health Committee meeting, and formally closes the session.
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
MEPs raise concerns that unilateral sanctions obstruct access to medicines, medical equipment and hygiene products, citing UN and academic evidence, and propose a dedicated committee debate and engagement with WHO to address humanitarian exemptions.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
After closing the hearing item, the Chair gives the floor for a statement highlighting how unilateral sanctions can restrict access to medicines and medical supplies and proposing a SANT committee debate on reconciling sanctions with humanitarian and health obligations.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
Experts brief MEPs on the prevalence, clinical and economic burden of hearing loss, low uptake of hearing devices and the HERE manifesto for an EU hearing health strategy, followed by questions on prevention, devices and inequalities, discussion of integrated sensory strategies and minimum EU‑level measures, and experts’ closing remarks on adult screening and future policy support.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
Experts brief MEPs on the burden and comorbidities of hearing loss in the EU, present the HERE manifesto for an EU hearing health strategy, and answer questions on prevention, screening, inequalities in access and the design of a minimum EU package, stressing integrated lifelong care, levelling up national practices and the need to treat hearing loss as a public health priority ahead of forthcoming Lancet recommendations.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
The rapporteur outlines the opinion’s priorities on integrating sex and gender in research, training and AI/medical devices, while MEPs from multiple groups call for an EU women’s health strategy, better recognition of underdiagnosed conditions, informed consent and balanced contraceptive responsibility, and the Chair and rapporteur set additional priorities and procedural next steps.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
The rapporteur presents the draft opinion on gender inequalities in health, highlighting biases in research, training, AI and medical devices, while MEPs across groups call for an EU women’s health strategy, national plans, sex‑specific research and better diagnosis and care for under‑recognised conditions, before the chair and rapporteur close by underlining systemic male‑default bias and broad political support for stronger EU action.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
The auditor answers MEPs’ questions on inequalities, funding cuts and monitoring needs, while MEPs reiterate core political messages on stable financing, governance and innovation access, and engage in a Q&A on HPV vaccination targets, future budget and prevention, followed by the ECA’s closing remarks and the Commission’s response to the audit.
In this chapter
Committee on Public Health Ordinary meeting
MEPs from several groups respond to the audit, focusing on inequalities in access to modern therapies, the EU4Health budget cut and next MFF, transparency on EU funds, fragmentation of tools and governance risks, and delayed tobacco legislation and prevention measures.
In this chapter
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European Parliament broadcasts the sittings of the Committee on Public Health (SANT). Polyfact shows each one live, keeps it as a replay with its transcript and links its key moments to the second they were said.
47 sittings on Polyfact since 14 May 2025
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