Slovenian MEPs performing the best in health legislation

“ENVI. In the Brussels bubble, we all know what this stands for, but of course, before coming here, I didn’t. If someone had mentioned ENVI to me then, I would probably first think that they meant ‘envy’.  But no, it has nothing to do with envy.

Mind you …  Perhaps our colleagues from other countries could indeed be a little envious, at least because of the news I am about to share with you.

To start: ENVI stands for the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. Slovenian members of this committee include Milan Brglez, Ljudmila Novak and myself.

And in this committee, Slovenian MEPs – proportionally to the delegation’s size – are among the best performing when it comes to health-related legislative activities!

I often hear phrases like “Slovenia is not really achieving much in the EU” or “what can you do, we’re simply too small” … Which is why I was really pleased to hear about the analysis by EU Matrix, a Brussels-based think-tank that focuses on EU policy research. I am proud that our work is being noticed.

This does not mean, of course, that we have done enough. There is still a lot of work to be done. To focus on the priorities, this includes the proposal to regulate the European Health Data Space, which is first and foremost about supporting people to take control of their own health data, but also about enabling the EU to fully exploit the potential offered by the secure exchange, use and re-use of health data. Another key issue will be, for example, the European Medicines Strategy, which could have a very significant impact on the further development of medicines in Europe and on their accessibility, which is very important in tackling diseases, especially rare diseases or their new, yet unexplored forms.

This committee is responsible for a number of topical policy areas next to public health, including climate change, biodiversity protection, the circular economy, the use of chemicals and pesticides … It is the largest committee in the European Parliament.

I also worked on health in the Special Committee on Beating Cancer, which concluded its work by adopting a European strategy for the fight against this insidious disease. I am now a member of the Special Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic. I am also actively involved in various intergroups focusing on improving public health, such as the intergroups on cancer, on people with disabilities, on climate change, on biodiversity and on sustainable development, all of which I believe help to find opportunities to improve the current situation and to take action in the interests of all the Union’s citizens.”

Details of the analysis can be found here: https://eumatrix.eu/…/mep-influence-index-2022-top-5…

– Irena