WPF comments on European Commission proposal for new Health Authority

The European Commission has proposed the creation of a new European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, HERA.

WPF provided comments regarding the proposal, urging the Commission to ensure from the outset that HERA will fulfill its mission with a focus on data interoperability and will include specific data governance and protection measures that will analyze and address informational risks, including those relating to privacy, among other informational risks.

WPF also encouraged the Commission to ensure that HERA will, as a prominent feature, include governance structures and policies that facilitate increased coordination and harmonization with external organizations both in Europe and the rest of the world. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA,) among other such institutions.

WPF also requested that the institutional design of HERA ensure collaboration with and consideration of all jurisdictions, including the low and middle income countries (LMIC) in meaningful ways through the design, purpose, and functioning of HERA.

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Posted February 24, 2021 in COVID-19, Governance, Health Privacy, Public Comments, Public Policy, Region: EU
Tags: #European Commission, #HERA

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This comprehensive report and proposed bill text is focused on the Privacy Act of 1974, an important and early Federal privacy law that applies to the government sector and some contractors. The Privacy Act was written for the 1970s information era -- an era that was characterized by the use of mainframe computers and filing cabinets. Today's digital information era looks much different than the '70s: smart phones are smarter than the old mainframes, and documents are now routinely digitized and stored and perhaps even analyzed in the cloud, among many other changes. The report focuses on why the Privacy Act needs an update that will bring it into this century, and how that could look and work. This work was written by Robert Gellman, and informed by a two-year multi-stakeholder process.

WPF comments on European Commission proposal for new Health Authority

Related Documents:

WPF comments to the European Commission regarding HERA (PDF, 2 pages).

European Commission Inception Impact Assessment and public consultation