From neighbourhood and enlargement policy to Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare. This is the path of Olivér Varhelyi, confirmed by Ursula von der Leyen in her team during the plenary session in Strasbourg. After the difficult period of Covid and the difficult post-pandemic restart, one could have expected a politician with more weight for the arduous task of ensuring more compact, coordinated and prevention-based health policies. However, health policy continues to be unattractive for those aspiring to a top job in Europe. Varhelyi, Viktor Orban’s trusted man, had ended up in the storm last year both for more or less veiled pro-Russia positions and for not exactly collaborative attitudes towards MEPs.
Now he returns to von der Leyen’s side with the task of completing the ambitious project of the European Health Union, to continue working for One Health, which proposes a multidisciplinary approach to healthcare, which takes into account the health of individuals, the environment and animals. The concrete challenges will be to avoid drug shortages, to allow a more dynamic competitive market in a pharmaceutical industry characterized by a few dominant players, to implement the controversial Plan to beat cancer, which in Italy (and not only) has raised numerous criticisms. Finally, the fight against nicotine continues, to be updated after the boom in electronic cigarettes.
Who is Health Commissioner Olivér Varhelyi?
Varhelyi had ended up in a storm last year after calling MEPs “idiots” following a question session in Strasbourg. At the time, Varhelyi was in charge of the Directorate-General for the accession process of new member states. The European Parliament had risen up, demanding his resignation. Before and after the case, the commissioner remained in the crosshairs of many MEPs, being seen as an emanation of Orban within the EU executive, with Hungary isolated both for its ambiguous positions on Russia and for the progressive erosion of the rule of law within the country. Yet he was confirmed by von der Leyen also for his second term.
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“I am honored to have been nominated for the Animal Health and Welfare portfolio,” Varhelyi wrote on X, citing examples of excellence among Hungarian medical professionals. According to some experts, the Hungarian commissioner will this time have more technocratic than political tasks, such as those related to enlargement, where a lot of balance and diplomacy was needed to dialogue, for example, with candidate countries such as Serbia and Turkey and still remain “faithful” to the values of the EU.
What will the new Health Commissioner be responsible for?
To address the serious shortages of medicines and ensure their affordability, von der Leyen has entrusted Varhelyi with the leadership of the Critical Medicines Act. The main challenge will be to conclude the Pharma package and implement it. Among the most important innovations, the regulation provides for the reduction of patent protection on data of new medicines, which should reduce the excessive power of the big names in this industry. The main pharmaceutical lobbies are already waiting for him on the threshold of his office.
The Hungarian will also have to commit to meeting the demands contained in the Draghi report, which called for example for faster drug authorization procedures, better access to the most advanced therapies and the adoption of artificial intelligence in the medical field. Biotechnology will also be at the center of her mission, an increasingly vital area for improving treatments and health technologies. With the European Biotech Act, von der Leyen aims to promote innovation in clinical trials and make European companies in the sector more competitive.
Fight against cancer and smoking
Prevention remains central to the von der Leyen Commission (at least on paper), but it remains one of the most debated areas. Even in this second mandate, German politics is focusing on the Cancer Fighting Plan, which in the previous legislature had raised harsh criticism due to the “demonization” by the experts involved with respect to red meat, sugar, ultra-processed foods and alcohol. MEPs, agricultural lobbies and wine producers (especially Italian ones) had raised barricades, it will be necessary to understand how much Varhelyi will invest in this chapter of his mission and whether bans, higher taxes or simple recommendations will emerge. Last but not least, nicotine.
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The German leader has explicitly called for a review of the tobacco law, also in light of a market disrupted by electronic cigarettes and the fatal attraction they exert on minors and young people in general. Only a few days ago, new recommendations for the EU Commission arrived from a draft circulating in Brussels: reaching a tobacco-free generation by 2040, fighting passive smoking also with smoking bans (including for vaping) outdoors in certain areas.
The novelty of animal welfare
Along with health, the Hungarian commissioner also has the responsibility to improve animal welfare, explicitly mentioned in his portfolio. It would seem like a victory for those who have been fighting for years on these issues, but the name of Varhelyi immediately made animal rights activists and environmentalists turn up their noses. While former commissioner Stella Kyriakides had worked hard to introduce new animal protection regulations, especially taking care of the proposals on transport conditions and the ban on cages, this time the commissioner’s duties are vague, but above all, his positions on the matter are vague.
