Statement – Rethinking policies in the light of the pandemic

Statement by Professor Mario Monti, Chair of the Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development at WHO/Europe press briefing

27 August 2020

Thank you very much. It is a pleasure to be with you – I’m here at Bocconi University in Milan. I welcome the members of the press, as well as some of my colleagues for this really challenging adventure. Professor McKee, I’m very honoured to have him on the Commission, he’s really an exceptionally high-level authority in public health, well-recognised internationally.

It is above all you, Dr Kluge, you Hans, whom I wish to thank for your very warm words of introduction. But also for your vision and for driving this initiative from a conceptual sphere, because you are the father of the idea to bring in this Commission to life and for inviting me to be its chair.

It is indeed an honour to say a few words on the Pan-European Commission on health and Sustainable Development. In a sense the ‘pan’ is the dominating word here because we have a pandemic, we have a Pan-European Commission, 53 Member States, WHO/Europe belongs to fifty-three Member States. But I would say the ‘pan’ extends also to the core substance of our work – which is really very well defined, I believe by the subtitle – ‘Rethinking policies in the light of the pandemic.’ So, it’s an exercise, a holistic approach to see how the pandemic must bring lessons, not just on how to improve, make more resilient, and so-on the health and social care systems - which is a huge enough task - but also, what changes it should bring in the way in which policy decisions are made at the highest level of governments.

Yesterday, together with our 17 Commissioners, with a scientific coordinator and with my special advisor Aleksandra Torbica, who is here next to me at Bocconi, we held our first meeting. At this meeting we agreed on the scope of our work, what we will deliver and how we will coordinate.

So why the Commission? This was clearly expressed already in a very concise manner by Dr Kluge.  This pandemic has been and is unfortunately, still a defining crisis of our times. It has caused the tragic loss of so many lives and because of the complex interplay of health, social, environmental, economic and political factors – how we learn from and respond to this crisis will also determine the well-being of current and future generations.

Our health systems, economies and social care structures have proven fragile when faced with this virus. It has been an unsolicited, monumental stress-test for all of our systems and our countries. To fight COVID-19 effectively requires collaboration, coordination and solidarity across communities, sectors and countries. The pandemic has illuminated, with a rather dark light, the stark inequalities of our modern world.  But it has also underlined more than ever, the truism that no-one is safe until everyone is safe. COVID-19 is an unprecedented health crisis that does demand an unprecedented response – but it also offers a unique opportunity to rethink and reform our health and social care systems – to ensure that they are resourced, robust and resilient.

Of course, as we come more specifically to the goals of the Commission, the goal of our Commission is definitely not to tackle the immediate, huge current problems of the ongoing pandemic. This is of course what all countries, all Member States of the European Region, of the world do. This is what WHO and specifically WHO in the European Region does, and I am delighted that in cases of questions from the press today on what really matters most at this moment - so the ongoing threats and the ongoing attempts to solve these threats - we have here very competent people, not only Dr Kluge and Professor McKee, but also, and I welcome very much –  Dr Dorit Nitzan who has the whole situation in the mind and I hope under her control.

The Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development has been established to do the broader, the longer term, the more comprehensive and the more holistic job. And it is the first of its kind that I know of. The Commission will take a magnifying glass to current economic and social policies, using the evidence of how these policies have performed in-light of this pandemic, to make recommendations on how such policies should be enhanced at the national and international levels to forecast, prevent and respond to future crises.

The Commission will also reach out and establish partnerships with countries and international agencies to facilitate the policy discourse with and between health authorities, experts and citizens assemblies and groups, to build resilience across health systems and societies.

The Scientific Advisory Committee coordinated by Professor Elios Mossialos and with the highly authoritative presence and contribution of Professor McKee, will ensure that the Commission’s work is grounded in experience and based on empirical evidence.

The Commission has been convened on the initiative of Dr Kluge, and it also has the support of Dr Tedros, the Director-General of WHO. But they have emphasized, and I would like to reiterate an important quality and responsibility of our Commission. That is, the Commission is fully independent. It’s not a Commission to which either WHO or national governments give guidance. That might have facilitated our task, but we would not have accepted that, because we are assembled to break our own minds and to find out collectively what we believe could be a series of wise proposals. So, it is fully independent: the work of its members, the agenda, the recommendations when they come, are driven by the Commission itself. But of course, this would not have existed without the daring initiative of Dr Kluge, and secondly could not exist and proceed in its work without the fundamental organizational and logistics support that an institution like WHO can provide to us.

One final reflection on this work, which is of great importance to me personally, is that although the Commission’s recommendations can and should break new ground in terms of who they bring together and should catapult health and well-being to the top of the political agenda, they must also be inclusive, practical and applicable. So this is not a Commission of professors simply - although there are many and highly qualified - this is a Commission of thinkers in different fields who have the responsibility of producing something that can be agreed upon or not, but has the vocation to be practical and applicable.

Who are the members of the Commission? To undertake such a monumental task requires bringing together the highest caliber of experts, of expertise and experiences from a range of fields. It is my great privilege to chair such a distinguished group of leaders, policy makers, scientists and civil society chiefs. The Commission comprises former heads of states and governments, distinguished life scientists and economists, heads of health and social care institutions and leaders of the business community and of financial institutions.

Members have been appointed to the Commission, obviously on a non-remunerated basis, by WHO. They have been selected and proposed in consultation with me, by Dr Kluge. They have not been put forth by governments, although we count very much on the constructive cooperation between members of the Commission and governments. I am both delighted and humbled to take up this challenge – together we have the opportunity to shift political thinking, to prioritise health, to build consensus on how to achieve this, and in so doing, perhaps set this continent on the right path to build happy, healthy, prosperous societies.

So my fellow Commissioners and I have much work to do. We have committed to deliver these policy recommendations in one year from now, to launch our report in September next year. I hope you, the members of the press, of the different media, will follow us on this journey, stimulate us, criticize us, if possible when you have something to potentially criticize, and join us in the autumn of next year to take up our findings and recommendations.

So, thank you very much and I return the floor to Robb, our moderator.