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Europejska opieka zdrowotna: prawo czy biznes? Europosłowie w „The Ring”
W specjalnym wydaniu programu „The Ring”, nadawanym z Szczytu Zdrowia Euronews, europosłanki Stine Bosse i Tilly Metz spierają się, kto ma płacić za innowacje w europejskiej ochronie zdrowia.
CZYTAJ WIĘCEJ : http://pl.euronews.com/2026/03/19/europejska-opieka-zdrowotna-prawo-czy-biznes-europoslowie-w-the-ring
Zasubskrybuj nasz kanał.Euronews jest dostępny na Dailymotion w 12 językach
W specjalnym wydaniu programu „The Ring”, nadawanym z Szczytu Zdrowia Euronews, europosłanki Stine Bosse i Tilly Metz spierają się, kto ma płacić za innowacje w europejskiej ochronie zdrowia.
CZYTAJ WIĘCEJ : http://pl.euronews.com/2026/03/19/europejska-opieka-zdrowotna-prawo-czy-biznes-europoslowie-w-the-ring
Zasubskrybuj nasz kanał.Euronews jest dostępny na Dailymotion w 12 językach
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NewsTranscript
00:08WELCOME TO THE RING, TO THIS VERY SPECIAL EDITION BROADCASTING LIVE HERE FROM DOWNTOWN BRUSSELS.
00:15My name is Maeve McMahon, and I'm one of the presenters of THE RING,
00:18which is our weekly debating show that sees MEPs go face-to-face
00:23on some of the most pressing issues of our time.
00:26The topic that we're jumping into today is healthcare and who should pay.
00:32Europe is facing spiraling healthcare costs driven by an aging population and chronic diseases.
00:38At the same time, demand for new treatments is growing, raising crucial questions.
00:44Who should pay for healthcare innovation? And to what extent is health treated as a business?
00:50One key pressure point is the cost of new drugs and vaccines.
00:54Should the EU coordinate pricing for essential medicines to ensure equal access across member
01:00states, while also having tools to intervene in production and distribution during crises?
01:05Or should pricing and supply remain a national responsibility to prevent straining healthcare
01:11budgets and weakening market incentives?
01:14Tax debates in the pharmaceutical sector further highlight concerns about how much the industry
01:20should profit from public investment. Europe also faces longer-term challenges.
01:25Its healthcare system spends far more on treatment than prevention.
01:29The real question is not only how Europe will pay for healthcare,
01:33but what kind of healthcare system it ultimately wants to protect.
01:38Let's meet our panelists.
01:41Tilly Metz, a Luxembourgish MEP from the Greens European Free Alliance Group.
01:47She has been a member of the European Parliament since 2018 and serves on the Committee on the
01:52Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. In debates on EU health policy, she has advocated
01:58for stronger European cooperation on public health and greater transparency in the pharmaceutical
02:03sector.
02:04We need a strong commitment to solidarity over privatization and to high-quality care
02:10over commercialization, she said.
02:13Stine Boss, a Danish MEP from the Liberal Renew Europe Group. Elected to the European Parliament in 2024,
02:20she works on economic and industry-related issues and has spoken about the importance of maintaining
02:25Europe's competitiveness and innovation capacity. In discussions about the pharmaceutical sector,
02:30she has emphasized the need to balance strong research incentives with sustainable healthcare
02:35systems. We must do much more, better and cheaper together, including by creating a single market for
02:42clinical trials and by taking more decisions at the European level, she said.
02:50Welcome. So lovely to have you with us here for this very special edition of The Ring.
02:55So the idea here, ladies, is to give our viewers back home a bit of a taste of what exactly
03:01you get
03:01up to inside that European Parliament chamber, here in Brussels and also in Strasbourg. Sometimes you fire
03:07questions at each other, sometimes it gets a little bit heated. Today, as you know, we're focusing on
03:13healthcare and the future of it right here in the European Union and who, of course, should pay.
03:18So Tilly, if we can start with you on that very, very pertinent question, who should be paying for the
03:23future of
03:24healthcare in Europe? Should it be us, the patients? Should it be pharma, the governments, big tech?
03:29Yeah, but if we look what the situation is right now, we see there's a lot of public funding indeed
03:36going in
03:36research, but there's also the patient that is paying. So you could even say that the patient right
03:42now is paying twice. He is paying first with taxes, which go down to funds, and then he pays again
03:50a price at
03:51at the pharmacy. So what we need for sure is at the EU level, but also at national level,
03:57more public investment, yeah. Well, it actually all connects, and I do agree that there is an issue on
04:05how do we look into the future? What is the construction? Is it all, you know, everybody has
04:12access to healthcare, or is it a different model? That has to be debated, but at the end of the
04:17day,
04:18it all starts, and it all ends at the end of the day, that we have a strong and competitive
04:23pharmaceutical sector, and then we can discuss who pays. And that's an important point, of course.
04:29Tillie Metz, if you look at the data, one in every two medicines, this is back 25 years ago,
04:35was invented or discovered right here in Europe. Now it's only one in six. What went wrong?
04:41Exactly. I mean, if we go more to privatization and more leaving all the leadership to the
04:47pharma industry, we see that it doesn't work. Indeed, we still have innovation in Europe. We still
04:52have, but we are not really scaling up. But if we look at innovation, and there is no real added
04:59value
04:59for the patients, that's something we need to do better. So it's up to public authorities to take back
05:06their leadership and their responsibility. I mean, if we go more and more in private healthcare,
05:13there is a huge risk of even more commercialization of access to healthcare, and of commodifying
05:20medicines and healthcare. Would you agree with that point, Sinebos? Yes, I do agree, but I don't think
05:27that a strong pharmaceutical sector is the opposite of having a totally sane and fantastic healthcare
05:35sector as such. I think these two things go hand in hand. But that is, of course, a question of
05:41funding. First of all, importantly enough, funding for the pharmaceutical sector. And then, of course,
05:46who pays? Is it tax paid? Is it universal access to treatment and to medicines? Or is it a private
05:53sector that we see growing? And there, I think we will have to face that there will be a blend.
05:59And I am a strong believer in a strong universal healthcare sector that makes sure that there is
06:07access for everybody. I mean, we know that the private sector and the objective of the private
06:14sector are not necessarily aligned with what is really the public health's need. But I agree,
06:22we need a strong pharma sector. We need to have manufacturing back in Europe, and we need to have the
06:28conditions,
06:29for the pharma industry must not rely only on intellectual property rights. There are other
06:38models, other alternatives of incentives. There needs to be a better coordination from the public
06:45authority in order to make it more equal. And this issue of scaling up, how can we do better here?
06:51I mean,
06:51in Europe, we're great at research, we're great in the lab, but getting it to market then is always the
06:56big challenge. Yeah, and there I tend to disagree. So without letting go of the security level for
07:03our citizens, we should base much more on our EMMA and less on our national entities. Because if you
07:12look at it, it is 578 days from the approval of a medicine in EMMA, till it reaches the patient.
07:22And on the European medicine agency, we'll come back to that point. I didn't say that it should not be
07:26the European medicine agency. I'm very pro-European. On contrary, we need better cooperation
07:32between the member states, and that can only be done at the European level. I mean, on that I agree
07:37with you. And is the European Union ready for the next big pandemic? Because we know it's coming. I mean,
07:42we remember those terrible days of COVID, and we're being warned that the next pandemic is around the
07:46corner. Sinebos, is the EU ready for this? No. I mean, we are more prepared than we were. I mean,
07:53we have learned. And the institutions are also now stronger, and health is a stronger issue.
08:00You know, the fact that we now have the health committee, and it's a full committee, and so on,
08:04all these things point in the right direction. But that's not reassuring our viewers, just having
08:07a committee. No, I agree. And here, I'm back to that. We need also a stronger collaboration
08:13between countries within the union. We need links also for ongoing health care, not only on the
08:21innovation side, but also on the delivery side, also between the hospitals. There's so many things
08:27that we can do a lot better and cheaper together if we work pan-European on these subjects.
08:34But I think one thing that we definitely learned from the pandemic is that we are over-reliant to
08:39the pharma industry. So we need the public sector to take more responsibilities again, and to have
08:45a better coordination. To be too reliant to the pharma industry, I mean, that gives a lot of
08:51insecurities also regarding the supply chain, regarding the transparency on the real coast, on research
08:58and development. I mean, I'm not against a strong pharma industry, but we must definitely
09:04also consider to have a European infrastructure on research and on production also of medicine.
09:12And I think we need to be ambitious there in order not to be too reliant and dependent only on
09:19the
09:19private sector, where we all agree that they have different objectives, and that is also perfectly okay.
09:26I mean, as I say, they are not necessarily aligned with what is really an added value of the medication.
09:32That's why there are certain sectors, like the orphan medicines, but also the antibiotics, where the pharma industry is not
09:40is not really interested because it's not really financially interested. So your objectives are different, and that's why we need
09:47a stronger public leadership of public authorities.
09:50That's the view from Terry Metz. Let's hear your view there.
09:52You might have recalled that I'm not a socialist, but I do have a lot of social responsibility within the
10:00way I think about our citizens.
10:02So I cannot see, Tilly, that we should go for a fantastic publicly owned pharmaceutical sector.
10:11I think we need a strong, privately owned, privately financed pharmaceutical sector who can see the benefits of staying in
10:19Europe, developing in Europe, and delivering in Europe.
10:22And we also, of course, want to hear from you. You can always write to us at TheRing at Eurinews
10:26.com. We'll come back to it.
10:28Okay.
10:32Now it is time for our viewers to get a real taste of Inside the Chamber, when MEPs actually fire
10:37questions at each other.
10:39So now I'd like you to start with your first question for Tilly Metz.
10:42Well, Tilly, I just want to know, how on earth are you going to make sure that we can be
10:49able from Europe to deliver the best, the newest medicines, the fastest to our citizens?
10:57What is your prescription for that?
11:01I think it's very clear that we need to give incentives to the pharma industry and, on the other hand,
11:07to have kind of safe net by a public infrastructure.
11:12In order to have innovation and to guarantee also accessibility to innovation to everybody, we need to put conditions on
11:22this public funding and we need public authorities to play their role on asking accountability to the pharma industry and
11:31on asking transparency on the R&D costs, but also on how they develop their prices.
11:38I mean, as I said at the very beginning, it cannot be that the patient pays two times or three
11:44times, once by the data, once by the taxes that he pays, and then again a high price at the
11:51pharmacy.
11:52Are you satisfied with that answer or would you like to follow up?
11:55No, because I still see that there is a high risk with all your good ideas, some of them we
12:00can agree on, but there is a high risk that the pharmaceutical sector would look to other grounds and say,
12:07you know,
12:07it's much more attractive to us to develop and to invest in the U.S., for example.
12:13So bye-bye.
12:14Do you agree with the U.S. system where indeed the pharma industry wants to put very much higher prices?
12:22I mean, that's what they want.
12:23That's why they are attracted by the market in the U.S.
12:25Is that the model that we should aim at?
12:28No.
12:28Where only an elite can offer treatment and have innovation access and innovative health care?
12:35No.
12:36I think we must definitely take our responsibility.
12:39And that is one of the lessons learned from the pandemic.
12:42And that is, Tina, that's what we are working on.
12:44The Critical Medicines Act is exactly what we are doing there.
12:48We are making that the EU takes more responsibility in coordination, what is critical medicine for the citizens and what
12:57is really also of an added value and how we can bring back manufacturing again back to Europe.
13:03That's what we are working on, on the Critical Medicines Act.
13:06And our viewers can read more about that Critical Medicines Act on yournews.com.
13:09But now, Tilly Metz, it is time for you to address your very first question, Justine Boss.
13:13Yeah, but my very first question, I said it already a little bit, is like, do you agree in order
13:19to have accessibility and affordability on medicine that we need to have more transparency on coast?
13:27And that is meaning when we give public funding to the pharma industry that we need to put conditions on
13:34this public funding, conditions like supply chain, transparency on coast, etc.
13:42I think, first of all, and I will be repeating myself slightly, so bear with me.
13:46I think that it's the starting point will be that we have a strong pharmaceutical sector.
13:51And you might not agree.
13:52You think you jump right into it has to be state owned and it has to be state funded.
13:57I'm on another page there.
13:59Then having said that, then I agree that there are areas, the Critical Medicines Act is a good example.
14:05But there are also other areas where we have to think differently as Europeans, but also as countries.
14:12And that's why this thing about the nearly 600 days to approval, that we have to get out.
14:19We need to make sure that the country's level of approval is not there.
14:25It doesn't make any difference.
14:26And then on top of that, if we say to ourselves that there's an 80% difference between the countries
14:32of the accessibility to medicines, of course that cannot be so.
14:37So we have a huge issue at our hands to level this out between countries and to protect our universal
14:44health care.
14:45But that is only protected if we have earnings.
14:49Earnings makes taxes.
14:50Taxes makes the money to actually finance health care.
14:55I know you had another long list of questions for each other, but we will have to wrap it there
14:59because we've now heard from our MEPs.
15:02And I would really like to bring in another voice here.
15:08I would like to bring in the voice now of the head of AstraZeneca, the CEO and executive director.
15:14That's Pascal Sorghiot.
15:15He recently said that the pharma industry in Europe will be reduced to a shadow of itself within 15 years.
15:22He said this due to two major threats facing the pharma industry.
15:26One, pharma companies are investing heavily in the U.S. to avoid heavy taxes by the Trump administration.
15:32And, of course, the other elephant in the room, China, is, of course, the leader in generics and a major
15:37competitor when it comes to innovation medicines.
15:40So, Tilly Metz, I'm curious to hear your view here on the concerns of the industry and of the CEO
15:46there of AstraZeneca.
15:47First of all, what I want to correct, because it seems like I want 100% only state-owned pharma
15:55industry.
15:55That is wrong.
15:56I just want a safe net that is public in order to guarantee that we are not 100% lying.
16:04But the pharma industry has an important role to play.
16:09And I spoke about incentives.
16:10I'm just convinced, and we see it in the reality, if we are pragmatic, we see in the reality, leaving
16:17it all to the pharma industry, that the system doesn't work.
16:20Because we have shortage of medicine, et cetera, what I said before.
16:25But we need other incentives, like the subscription model, where you know, if you work on research, for example, on
16:31antibiotics, that you get the fixed amount of money in order to work on that.
16:37That is one model.
16:37Or a milestone model.
16:39So, Ancine, if I can just bring you in here, I mean, is it scaremongering what he says there?
16:45Or would you agree with it?
16:46Because, I mean, you're still the home of the big pharma.
16:49And I think it's actually more serious than we can dream of.
16:52If we are, and this is a little bit dramatic, but it's good on television, we are under attack.
16:58I mean, our pharmaceutical sector is under attack.
17:01This idea of the nation, most favored nation legislation that the administration in the U.S. put in place is
17:13really, really hammering us.
17:15And I'm not saying that we should give up, and I agree with you on the fact that there should
17:20be a basis coverage, obviously, for citizens in Europe, also regarding the safety of the approvals.
17:27But we have to understand that we must fight this with giving terms and conditions to our pharmaceutical sector that
17:36can compete with this, in my opinion, very mean model, and that we have to fight back.
17:42Would you agree with this, what she calls a very dramatic statement?
17:44Let's look what is at the center of our concerns.
17:48And I am allowing myself to say that it is different as a politician than from the pharma industry perspective.
17:54At the center of our concern is the patient.
17:56If you look at the situation of the patients in the United States, they are in a much worse health
18:03situation.
18:04If you look mental health, if you look obesity, if you look at a lot of diseases, suicide, everything, they
18:10are in a much worse case.
18:12What do I have from innovation if it's not accessible for the large public?
18:17And in innovation, we are not bad in Europe.
18:20It's in scaling up, it's in manufacturing where we are leaking.
18:23And we have a very fragmented market as well, Sinebos.
18:26Sure, we have this fragmented market, and we have really not a capital union, right?
18:31So we need also the fact that investors should have a much, or, yeah, investors and companies, much easier access
18:39to capital to make them stay here.
18:41We also have to face, Tilly, that no matter how we turn this around, there needs to be a strong
18:48sector here.
18:49We need to understand what the problem is for the sector, try and solve them, and then, of course, fight
18:55back to the U.S.
18:55Because I agree, even long liberty is much better in Europe.
18:58And we should not give up on these areas, but it's not on the contrary to have a strong sector.
19:05And then it comes back to the first question, who is paying?
19:08And there, I think there is a need for a truly and deep discussion on transparency, on how do we
19:16actually have fun.
19:17Because our model, look, our model is like 80% gets everything, right?
19:23We covered a lot of people.
19:25That's why we buy a lot of pharmaceutical products at a cheap price.
19:30In the U.S., not a lot of people are covered, so they pay much more per pill.
19:36So that makes it completely uncomparable.
19:39And that we have to sit down and really investigate and find out, also in the Biotech Act, how are
19:45we going to solve this?
19:46So you have a lot to do, ladies.
19:48But now it is time, in fact, for our next round.
20:00Now I'd like to bring in some figures.
20:02There is a big problem when it comes to Europeans having to wait for new medicines.
20:06The EU average is about 578 days.
20:10That's from approval to patient access.
20:13And it varies from country to country.
20:15Patients in some countries have to wait seven times longer than others.
20:20While the fastest is in Germany at 128 days, Portuguese patients wait the longest.
20:26So your reaction here to this inequality?
20:28Yeah, this is completely how it is.
20:33But of course there is an explanation.
20:35It's not because Portugal wants to have a longer period for the population.
20:41It's about finances.
20:42It's about can they afford it?
20:44And here we are, of course, entering into very, very difficult discussions.
20:48Because a country like Denmark, if you compare us to Bulgaria, to Romania, then we are in for big, you
20:55know, there's a big difference.
20:57And that we need to, over time, solve.
21:00But one of the ways to do it is to, again, what we can make better and cheaper together we
21:05must, including the EMA, to save all the money in all the countries.
21:10And the irony is in Germany, 128 days, that's supposed to be quick.
21:14I mean, that's a matter of life and death if you have to wait that long for your pills.
21:16Yes.
21:17Yeah, indeed.
21:18And what we need also is we need more cooperation in European procurement so that we do, that we buy
21:27together in order also with strict timeline and also with the security on the supply chain.
21:33So that's, again, we need to give more incentives, that is true, but that goes hands in hand with conditions
21:40of supply chain, et cetera.
21:42And we need, of course, on that I agree with Sinebos, we need also to keep the EMA, the European
21:48Medicines Agency, more human resources and more resources in general in order to be more efficient.
21:54And then that we need less and less also there to rely on national issues.
21:59And should there be an EU-wide pricing for essential medicines?
22:03I think at the end of the day, we will get into that area.
22:07I don't see that we can avoid having some kind of, you know, more transparency and more central discuss pricing.
22:15Because now when you go to your doctor, sometimes they say, go to France, you can get to France.
22:18Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
22:18Yeah, yeah.
22:19That's why I say, but I had this conversation with, you can probably guess who it is, but it was
22:24a CEO of a large Danish pharmaceutical company.
22:27And I said to him, I don't worry when I go in a shop and I buy, like, say, H
22:33&M, and I buy something.
22:34And I can see the price in Sweden, in Germany, in France.
22:38And I'm still happy paying with my, unfortunately, it's still Danish kroner.
22:43So I think we should be more transparent.
22:47We should be more bold together with the industry.
22:50And they are also, at least some of them, maturing in that direction.
22:55Of course, also because of the big threat that we have just debated from the outside.
23:00Now, we definitely need to put public interest is definitely more important, especially in the health sector, than commercial interest.
23:07I mean, at the very end, the very famous company, pharma industry that produced drugs in, in the last moment,
23:14the price was really increasing again.
23:16Why?
23:16All the research, all the A&D was done.
23:19So we need definitely transparency.
23:20And as I said, that goes hand in hand with also public funding.
23:25It's something we owe to the taxpayers.
23:27We owe to the citizens to ask for this transparency.
23:31And especially when we speak of a fundamental right, which is access to health care.
23:36Because as you said, twice or three times or four times already here in the program, consumers are paying twice.
23:42Patients are paying twice.
23:43This is a big problem.
23:44Well, I'm not sure I agree completely on the fact that people are paying twice.
23:50I agree that there is a debate on how can we make this more transparent.
23:54But to be honest, I mean, the pharmaceutical sector invests a lot and they should.
24:00And I also agree that in some areas they should also be held accountable.
24:05You know, if there is public money involved.
24:07Yes, I agree on that.
24:09Should we speak about the benefits that we made for the COVID-19?
24:12Yes, but look, then on the other hand, of course there is large number of workplaces, innovation, you know, attracting
24:22skilled people and all this is also beneficial for Europe.
24:26It's not only, it's not a non-sum spill, you know, thing.
24:30We have to look at the total.
24:32And I think it is, it would be devastating if we lost the last industry, ladies and gentlemen, the last
24:39industry where we are still close to, not even, but close to on par with the US and China.
24:47We lost digital industry.
24:49So do we want in 10 years from now to have a pharmaceutical sector where we said that's history, it's
24:54gone?
24:55And on the digital industry, that's, of course, for another episode of The Ring.
24:58We'll have to wrap it up there because I would love to move on to the fifth and very last
25:02round of this very special edition of The Ring, which is focusing on the future of healthcare.
25:10Ladies, are you ready?
25:11Yeah.
25:11Yeah.
25:12Excellent, because you need all your wits about you for this last segment because it's a little bit different.
25:17You only are allowed answer using yes or no.
25:21Does that sound good?
25:22That sounds good.
25:23Great.
25:24Let's do it.
25:24Stine Boss, let's begin with you.
25:26Should the EU cap prices for essential medicines?
25:29Yes or no?
25:35Can I have a yes, but?
25:37Very briefly.
25:38Yes, but it has to be limited to very, very special situations and very special medicines.
25:44Okay.
25:44Let's see if you can do a yes or no here.
25:46Yes.
25:47It's a fundamental right.
25:48Access to fundamental medicines is a fundamental right.
25:51Another question coming for you both.
25:53Tilly, I will start with you.
25:54Should Brussels negotiate drug prices for all EU member states?
25:58I think that would be a strength if we do that.
26:00We saw the COVID-19 that negotiating together gives us more power.
26:05So, yes.
26:06So, that's a yes.
26:06What about you?
26:07Yes or no on this one?
26:08Down the road, it will be a yes from me also.
26:12Should patents be waived during major health crises?
26:15Yeah, yeah, of course.
26:16I mean, the patients and this is the...
26:18You say yes, Dino.
26:18I say yes to the fact that you need, we need, we're politicians, we need to keep our main focus
26:25on the patients.
26:26No doubt about that.
26:27And now a question you're both going to love.
26:29Should medicines be the same price all across the European Union?
26:33That's a long way to go there, but that would be coherent if we listen to the European citizens that
26:40want more healthcare and also better coordinate.
26:42So, that's a big yes, a resounding yes.
26:44What about you?
26:44I mean, it goes hand in hand with what I just answered.
26:47So, if you have a procurement way down the road that is common European, then of course you also have
26:54a transparent common...
26:56And just finally, is the future of EU health and innovation bright?
27:01Yes.
27:02I'm a strong believer in the EU as such and of course also in this sector, but we have to
27:07get a lot of our act together.
27:08And what about you, yes or no?
27:09Bright future or not?
27:11Bright future, yes, because we should listen to the citizens and we should put more funding and not cut the
27:16funding.
27:17Telly-Mas, did you agree with anything you've heard?
27:18Yes, she said that we should waive the intellectual property rights during a pandemic.
27:22There you go.
27:23You see, it's here on The Ring where we get people to talk, disagree and sometimes agree.
27:27Thank you so much and a round of applause for our two MEPs on The Ring, Stine Boss and Tilly
27:31-Mas.
27:32Thank you.
27:37And thank you so much for tuning in.
27:39As always, we love to hear from you.
27:40Write to us at TheRing at Euronews.com and stay with us here on Euronews.
27:48And thank you so much for tuning in.
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