"Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me first of all warmly thank you for having invited me to this event.
This conference gives me the opportunity to address two different aspects of the commitment of the Ministry of Health and, of course, of the Luxembourg Gouvernment in the field of the fight against Ebola:
- First of all, our efforts on the national level
- And second, efforts at European level in the framework of the Luxembourg Presidency of the European Council.
The ministry of health has become active at governmental level beginning of September 2014 when the threat of a possible Ebola infection came closer to Europe and when we realized that it was vital to gear up in order to be ready for the treatment of a possible Ebola case in Luxembourg.
The first decision I took was to submit to the Council of ministers a formal request to urgently grant the financing of the laboratory facilities in Luxembourg that were necessary in order to allow the diagnostic of an Ebola case.
This request was granted without a major discussion. Everyone was aware of the seriousness of the situation.
After that, the Council of ministers was again seized by the ministry of health in order to extend the agreement given to finance the laboratory capacities to all possible future fees in relation to the fight against Ebola. We thus could ensure that the total amount of these fees were covered by the “crisis management” budget of the High Commissioner in charge of the National Protection (Ministry of State).
Once the laboratory capacities secured, the ministry of health tackled another critical field, being that of the hospital capacities.
Although Luxembourg does have a national service for transmissible diseases, with excellent competences and experiences, able to treat up to two Ebola patients, it was important for me to put in place the conditions allowing to have a back up solution in place.
This is why I approached the health ministers from France and from Germany to set up a formal cooperation mechanism with specialized services of the Strasbourg Hospital Center and with the University Clinic of Düsseldorf.
The agreements that were signed form part of the Ebola Emergency Intervention Plan of the Luxembourg Government and will grant the best possible treatment of Ebola patients that would reside in Luxembourg, in case our national infrastructures would not be able to do so, for various reasons.
Luckily we did not have to make use of these agreements so far and the chances that we will have to do so one day, are getting smaller and smaller.
But, although Ebola seems to be under control today, we need to remain vigilant.
And we need to learn from this epidemic how to be better prepared in case of the next international health crisis.
This was the reason why I decided, together with the European Commission, to put Ebola high on the agenda of the Luxembourg Presidency – which makes me address the second part of my intervention.
A ministerial conference entitled “Ebola lessons learned for Public Health from Ebola outbreak in West Africa – Health Security in the European Union”, therefore took place from 12th to 14th October in Mondorf.
The aim of this conference was to identify learning points arising from the Ebola epidemic which will be crucial to strengthen health security in the European Union, better prepare us for similar crises and put us in the position to respond rapidly, flexibly and effectively to emergencies and disease outbreaks in the future.
Over 350 participants attended, including:
- health ministers from the UK, Germany, Croatia, Finland, Cyprus,
- the European commissioner in charge of health and the commissioner in charge of cooperation and humanitarian aid,
- but also the Director General of the WHO, Dr Margaret Chan,
- as well as experts from all the EU Member States, international and non-governmental organisations – such as MSF.
Many take-home messages resulted from these three days of discussions.
One of the common messages was the need for improved cross-sectoral cooperation as well as strengthened health security in the European Union in order to enhance and maintain the response and preparedness capacities of Member States in case of future outbreaks.
Another message was that we should have better listened to the alarming reports sent to us by the associations that were active on the field. The name of MSF was mentioned several times in this respect. Let me address my special thanks to MSF for their relentless efforts in the fight against Ebola.
These findings together with the other main conclusions of the Conference will be reflected in a formal text that will be endorsed by the 28 Health ministers at the Council in December in Brussels, marking the closure of the health related activities of the Luxembourg Presidency.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
We don’t know when the next epidemic will hit us, but we know for sure that cross-sectoral cooperation is crucial if we want to strengthen health security within the European Union and to improve the response and preparedness capacities of Member States in case of future outbreaks.
Health, medical and clinical concerns must remain at the core of this response.
Ebola has caused unprecedented damages.
But we also know that Ebola did not only have negative effects.
First of all, it has triggered new ways of working and of crisis management within the European Union, allowing for best possible coordination of public health, research, development and military departments. Speeder reaction and pragmatic approaches were adopted and unprecedented funds were levied.
All of you present here today have played a major role in this crisis management and I urge you to keep the momentum and to continue to work together in the future.
Secondly, Ebola has also shown us that it is important to show greater solidarity. Solidarity towards the affected countries, but also between Member States.
And here, Luxembourg has been extremely effective by putting at the disposal of other countries the LAR air-transport capacities for sanitary repatriation of European citizens working in the affected countries. (= medevac)
It is now time for us to look back and to ask ourselves:
What could have been done differently?
How can we better sustain critical health system capacities, not only in our countries but also in the affected countries?
Luxembourg, just as all the other Member States and the international community, needs to learn lessons from the Ebola crisis.
And events like this one here today make a useful and necessary contribution to this exercise.
I wish you very fruitful discussions and I thank you for your attention!"