Today (16 June) the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (Health) will meet in Luxembourg. Discussions around the Biotech Act and Medical Devices are on the table, but a paper tabled by Germany may prove a turning point for discussion on the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive.
Germany’s paper, which has wide support, is highly critical of the Commission’s study updating the potential impact of extended producer responsibility on medicinal products, particularly generics. While it thanks the Commission for its work, it says that health ministers had expected that the review would entail “an in-depth examination of the financial impact on the national health systems and on the availability of medicinal products” and that it did not meet “these expectations”.
The paper calls for a mechanism to ensure that cost burdens can be controlled financially and for a standardised approach, “insofar as possible… with as little bureaucracy as possible” should be adopted across the EU. The paper also calls on upcoming evaluations to consider whether products other…
