Today in the NAT Commission meeting, members discussed the consequences of the Russian military aggression in Ukraine on European health care system as well as on the agricultural market and food security.
Debate on the consequences of the war in Ukraine on health services
During the NAT meeting, members shared stories on health policies and the consequences of the war in Ukraine on health services and sanitary systems, cross-border emergency services by helping Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war.
Olgierd Geblewicz, President of West Pomerania Region talked about the refugee situation in his region: “We need to make health services more resilient. The Ukrainian crisis posed an additional challenge on top of Covid-19 and the consequences on our healthcare services are huge. In the past weeks millions of Ukrainian citizens entered Poland, who need health care services like vaccination, screening, continuation of different medical treatments despite the absence of medical history.”
He also spoke about the challenges and the difficulties of hiring Ukrainian doctors and nurses because of the long lasting procedures of the EU diploma recognition: “We are missing out on a huge untapped potential regarding the possibility of hiring Ukrainian doctors and nurses. In my region, they are a great help in treating refugees because they speak the same language and are working on a voluntary basis.”
Despite having some of the best and most envied health systems in the world, the EU Member States have been under massive strain to cope with COVID-19. Yet, as painfully reminded by the war in Ukraine, the EU health systems must also be prepared to cope with other situations: terrorist attacks, nuclear accidents, natural and manmade disasters, as well as armed conflicts affecting the EU and its neighbourhood.
Birgitta Sacredeus, member of Dalarna Regional Council highlighted that: “The two crises, the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion on Ukraine has shown that the consequences are best handled on regional and local level. LRA’s are at the frontline of these situations and the first ones to respond.”
Debate on the current situation on the EU agricultural markets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
The European Commission has presented on 23 March a range of short-term and medium-term actions to enhance global food security and to support farmers and consumers in the EU in light of rising food prices and input costs, such as energy and fertilisers. The surge in global commodity prices, further accelerated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, highlights again the need for EU agriculture and food supply chains to become more resilient and sustainable.
Piotr Całbecki, President of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region, was appointed rapporteur on the respective NAT opinion on “Safeguarding food security and reinforcing the resilience of food system”.
“We need to focus on food security especially taking into account the current situation. Ukraine was one of the biggest provider for the EU for agricultural ferilisers and other farming supplies. We risk to have a big increase in prices for food. In my future report on this topic, I really want to tackle all of these challenges that our food security and farmers will face and are already facing.” said Piotr Całbecki.
Kujawsko-Pomorskie is an agricultural region with one of the highest food production indicators and a region where one of the biggest Polish fertilizers factories is located. Subject of safeguarding food security and reinforcing the resilience of food systems is in the core of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie. As a region directly involved in a broad support for Ukraine and its citizens suffering Russian invasion, it is also facing the consequences related to the food security and is working on the solutions to reinforce the resilience of food system