EU was not fully ready to respond to Covid-19, says auditor

The EU’s medical agencies were not fully prepared to address the Covid-19 pandemic — and would still fall short now — according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors.
The EU’s first defenses against the Covid-19 pandemic — the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) — both missed the mark on what was needed in the initial stages.
While they eventually responded well to the public health emergency, according to the report published on Wednesday, it is yet unclear whether the EU would be fully prepared now if another pandemic hit. 
“Like many other bodies, the EU’s medical agencies were overwhelmed by the force and speed of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said João Leão, the ECA member responsible for the audit, in a statement. 
The ECDC, Europe’s agency responsible for identifying, assessing and reporting current and emerging threats to human health from infectious diseases, initially underestimated the seriousness of Covid-19, according to the report.
By the time ECDC called for “immediate targeted action” — on March 12, 2020 — cases had already been reported in all EU member countries and Italy had declared a national lockdown three days earlier. 
ECDC was not only late with realizing the risk of Covid-19 but also with sharing risk assessments, guidance and public information. For example, guidance on face masks and contact tracing only came in towards the end of the first wave, the report states.
Regarding data collected by the ECDC, the EU auditors pointed out that more reliable techniques, such as analyzing virus concentrations in wastewater, could have been used more often. Throughout the pandemic, data on infection rates and deaths attributed to Covid-19 were dependent on individual countries’ testing strategies. 
In the meantime, the agency responsible for evaluating data supporting novel vaccine and drug candidates — EMA — was praised for quickly adapting to the situation. However, while EMA tried to promote EU clinical trials, it still largely had to rely on those held outside the EU, according to the report.
“The challenges posed by the fragmentation of clinical trials had been highlighted by EMA since the start of the pandemic,” EMA’s spokesperson told POLITICO in a written response. “Although the coordination of clinical trials falls outside the Agency’s legal mandate, it remains committed to promoting large, EU-wide clinical studies.”
Now, four years since the pandemic arrived, “the lessons learned must be effectively applied at  EU level so that history doesn’t repeat itself,” said Leão.
For this, the EMA should “fine-tune” procedures including the rolling reviews of vaccine and drug candidates during public health emergencies. The agency also needs to use its resources more efficiently and work with the Commission and EU countries to promote pan-European clinical trials.
Meanwhile the ECDC should improve its internal organization, procedures, systems and publications, the auditors advised.
And now, since the responsibilities of the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), which was established during the pandemic, overlap with the EMA and ECDC, the European Commission needs to better coordinate these authorities, the auditors pointed out. 
ECDC and EMA had budgets of €61 million and €358 million respectively at the start of the pandemic in 2020. They grew to €90 million and €458 million in 2023.