What Adam spoke about.

Mr President, the COVID—19 pandemic has unveiled new and unexpected threats to public health, but also highlighted and exacerbated existing weaknesses in the healthcare system of many Member States as well as beyond EU borders. It has demonstrated how a public health problem can affect the proper functioning of all European sectors and has shown that efforts to combat health emergencies require better coordination at EU level. Looking at this from an internal market perspective, the regulation on serious cross—border threats to health issues raises three important issues: supply chains, procurement and data sharing. Mainly, the pandemic has exposed the limited diversity of suppliers and over—reliance on a few particular supply chains. Such vulnerabilities need to be addressed by encouraging broader participation of small and medium—sized enterprises in joint procurement procedures. The EU should pay particular attention to providing technical assistance and reducing administrative burdens, to boost SMEs’ engagements in the process. Last but not least, the new regulation should ensure that data sets are equally accessible and usable across the EU for better coordination. I do hope that the proposed solution will contribute to the improvement of operational coordination in the EU. In this regard, I support the creation of the Health Emergency Response and Preparedness Authority.