Commissioner Gentiloni and Commissioner Kyriakides participate in G20 joint Finance and Health Ministerial Meeting

Paolo Gentiloni, Commissioner for Economy, and Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, will participate in today’s G20 joint Finance and Health Ministerial Meeting. In March, G20 Leaders tasked the World Health Organization (WHO) to assess gaps in pandemic preparedness and report the findings to the joint meeting of Finance and Health Ministers. The virtual meeting will discuss these gaps and seek to agree on the way forward to strengthen collective efforts to address them. Finance Ministers will participate to discuss the links between the health measures needed to address the coronavirus pandemic and the support measures to address its economic impact. Commissioner Gentiloni said: “The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on Europe’s economy. Even though there have been some encouraging signs, the long road to recovery is still paved with a high degree of uncertainty. We must work together to share information on scenarios for the possible economic impact of health crises in future to strengthen our resilience and ensure we are prepared.” Commissioner Kyriakides said: “More funding is needed to speed up the development, manufacturing and distribution of COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. As G20, we should work on creative solutions to keep the momentum and bring an end to COVID-19, looking at how we can attract new funding by thinking outside the box, for example through private funding or crowd funding initiatives. This is the best investment in the future we can make.” The remarks by Commissioner Kyriakides at the meeting will be available here.