The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe has announced that it will convene a Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development and has appointed former Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti as chairman of the commission, whose aim is “to rethink policy priorities in light of COVID-19 pandemics,” said a press release from the WHO Europe on Aug. 11.
Ask Italian healthcare workers what they think about Monti. Under his government (2011-2012), the health sector was hit by brutal cuts and liberalization. Some 20,000 healthcare workers took to the streets on Oct. 27, 2012, to protest against his cuts in the largest demonstration in recent decade.
Monti implemented EU6.8 billion in cuts that reduced hospital beds by 7,000 units, reduced the number of pharmacies per population, promoted the private sector, and increased regional health taxation.
Monti was certainly not the only prime minister who implemented cuts in the health system (others did it before and after him in obedience to EU recommendations), but he is co-responsible for creating conditions by which the Italian health system was unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monti’s first statement after the appointment exudes the typical technocratic approach: “I regard WHO’s decision to set up this high-level independent Commission as a progressive step towards shaping a more effective, integrated approach to health and well-being, as a bedrock for sustainable development,” said Monti in a WHO Europe press release.
The commission is expected to identify and review the current relevant evidence on the pandemic and draw lessons from the ways different countries’ health systems have responded to COVID-19, and then suggest “recommendations on investments and reforms to improve the resilience of health and social care systems,” said the press release.
The commission will include former heads of state and government, “distinguished“ life scientists and economists, heads of health and social care institutions, and leaders of the business community and financial institutions.
“Our goal is to position health at the top of the political agenda within the Sustainable Development Goals, and to strengthen the resilience of health and social care systems in the 53 Member States of the WHO European Region,” wrote Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, in the press release.
The commission will hold its inaugural meeting on Aug. 26, 2020, after WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Kluge jointly launch the commission.
The new commission is expected to complete its work and present its final report by September 2021.
