On 9 July 2025, the Commission launched two initiatives which, following its Preparedness Union Strategy[1], aim at ensuring continuity of essential goods and lifesaving medical supplies for European citizens and companies at all times, and in particular during crises.
The EU Stockpiling Strategy[2] finds its rationale in the fact that the coronavirus pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities in the EU’s supply chains related to medical products, energy, agri-food and critical raw materials, which was further worsened by the Ukrainian crisis, underscoring the strategic importance of reliable access to affordable energy, critical technologies and infrastructures. The EU, indeed, is presently facing an increasingly complex and deteriorating risk landscape marked by rising geopolitical tensions, climate change, environmental degradation and hybrid and cyber threats. The Stockpiling Strategy introduces a comprehensive approach addressing the entire stockpiling cycle and applying to essential goods, that is, any physical object necessary to maintain vital societal functions, thereby dealing with the EU framework’s shortcomings by identifying seven key areas for action.
In the first place, the Commission will establish an EU stockpiling network with Member States, which, on the one hand, will work as a forum for discussion on best practices regarding, amongst other things, foresight, anticipation, strategic planning and cost-efficiency assessments and, on the other hand, deploy an advisory role, formulating recommendations on issues such as volume requirements, oversight systems and coordination of minimum requirements.
Second, given that stockpiling is expensive and can create market imbalances, Member States should try ensuring the availability of essential goods in their planning processes and assess the relevant stockpiling methodology. The Commission, therefore, will map sectoral supply chain monitoring mechanisms and incorporate security of supply risks and supply chain vulnerability assessments into the envisaged comprehensive EU risk and threat assessment, to avoid or overcome supply shortages or supply chain disruptions.
Third, the Strategy highlights the need for the EU to maintain and scale up its strategic reserves, building on the current rescEU model[3] and expanding it to cover larger capacities. Furthermore, the Commission will continue to encourage efficient stockpiling management practices such as, amongst others, on advanced technology or systems in place or skilled professionals to design and manage stockpiles.
Fourth, since ensuring the availability of essential goods in times of crisis across sectors depends on robust and interoperable transport, logistics and stockpiling infrastructures, the EU will enhance cooperation and coordination to create adaptable policies and regulatory frameworks by simplifying procedures for moving and allocating resources across borders and providing targeted flexibility in transport regulations.
Fifth, together with the European External Action Service (EEAS), the Commission will, on the one hand, facilitate discussions within the EU stockpiling network to exchange best practices on civil-military cooperation and, on the other hand, expand existing staff cooperation with NATO to address material preparedness and stockpiling. In many crisis scenarios, civil-military cooperation is indispensable: countering and managing the consequences of all forms of attacks depends significantly on civilian capabilities and resources, while the military relies on the functioning of wider societal systems to develop and maintain its material readiness, logistical capability and resilience.
Similarly, public-private cooperation could help reaching out to relevant businesses to build a preparedness fit to address or anticipate supply chain bottlenecks or risks and support stockpiling and emergency production. Furthermore, such cooperation could facilitate a mapping of key European companies involved in material preparedness and promote the exchange of best practices to support Member States’ and the companies’ efforts to become more resilient to internal and external shocks to stockpiling flows.
Finally, the EU should strengthen collaboration with neighbourhood countries on crisis preparedness, given that their security and resilience are closely interlinked and constitute a factor of stability.
The Medical Countermeasures Strategy[4], instead, finds its rationale in the fact that despite being better prepared than during the coronavirus pandemic, the EU is still exposed to a wide range of health threats for which medical countermeasures are often scarce or unavailable. The Strategy, therefore, aims at proactively protecting people from health threats by acknowledging that medical countermeasures are fundamental to make the EU stronger and healthier and better prepared and, as such, need to be accessible at all times.
In the first place, the Strategy highlights the need for a robust foresight and anticipation system monitoring threats requiring medical countermeasures in an all-hazard approach, to ensure that the EU can rapidly develop and deploy medical countermeasures to respond to health emergencies. The Commission will continue to develop and operationalise its medical countermeasures intelligence system, the Advanced Technology for Health Intelligence and Action IT system (ATHINA), whose first modules became operational in 2025 and which will integrate existing public health and supply chain data collected and analysed through systems operated by, amongst the others, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
Second, building on the expertise and mandate of the ECDC, and in line with the ambitions set out in the Preparedness Union Strategy, the Commission will further strengthen its capacity to detect and assess threats taking an all-hazard and whole-of-society approach, covering traditional health threats like disease outbreaks, the impacts of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) incidents as well as armed conflicts and mass casualty events in the EU or its neighbourhood.
Third, to maximise the impact of EU funding and better use the potential of the EU budget to accelerate the development of medical countermeasures, the Commission will develop a Medical Countermeasures Accelerator tool by 2025, which will work as an integrated and simplified framework to speed up the development of medical countermeasures and support innovators throughout the whole cycle. Currently, the EU funding tools to advance the research and development of medical countermeasures are fragmented across several programmes, thereby hindering an efficient and coherent progress. Functioning as a one-stop-shop, the Accelerator will ensure instead a fair, transparent and competitive process through catalytic actions and support to innovation enablers, ensuring synergies, financial instruments available in EU programmes and avoiding duplication.
Fourth, the Commission will launch the Rapid Agile Manufacturing Partnership for Union Protection (RAMP UP), a voluntary network of EU-based pharmaceutical manufacturers, innovators and suppliers which will create a rapid-response industrial force to protect citizens in times of crisis by collecting essential information on medical countermeasures, manufacturing capacities during preparedness times and enabling the EU institutions to identify supply chain risks and respond swiftly to emergencies.
Finally, the Commission will continue to work with Member States to ensure rapid and equitable access to medical countermeasures. More particularly, the Commission will take into consideration revising the 2014 Joint Procurement Agreement for medical countermeasures[5] to align it with the new Financial Regulation[6] and make it better fit for nowadays’ needs for procurement. Furthermore, the Commission will facilitate swift response to health emergencies by supporting local detection of threats by easily deployable, ready-to-use laboratories for biological and chemical hazards in emergency situations, allowing affected communities to receive the diagnostic support they need.
[1] For further information see our previous article, available at the following LINK.
[2] Com. Comm. COM(2025) 528 final of 09.07.2025, EU stockpiling strategy: Boosting the EU’s material preparedness for crises.
[3] For further information see our previous article, available at the following LINK.
[4] Com. Comm. COM(2025) 529 final of 09.07.2025, Preparing the EU for the next health crisis: a Medical Countermeasures Strategy.
[5] Available at the following LINK.
[6] Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, OJ L 2024/2509 of 26.09.2024.