World Health Summit president Prof Dr Axel R. Pries wants Europe to fill the gap left by Washington's partial retreat from global health policy. Speaking to Euronews at the summit in Berlin, he said health must once again be treated as a "team sport" and Europe, built on the EU framework, should take a leading role.
Pries is a physician and physiologist who previously served as dean and board member of Charité. For six years, he has led the World Health Summit (WHS) in Berlin. His message is blunt: health policy now depends on multilateral cooperation.
The Case for Cooperation
Pries described the problem in unusual terms. At the World Health Summit Regional Meeting in Nairobi in April, about six months ago, he said: "We don't have the virus, but we have a political virus." Many countries, he explained, are viewing health "increasingly from a very national, sometimes even nationalist perspective." He said that outlook is spreading around the world and stands in the way of good solutions.
Covid showed the cost. It was, he said, "a clear sign that you cannot tackle problems purely at local level", a point he extended to mental health and non-communicable diseases. "That is why we need to revive multilateral mechanisms and give them fresh momentum," he said.
Europe's Role, and Its Limits
Asked about the partial US withdrawal from global health policy, Pries avoided claiming too much. "I would not say that Europe should be the leader," he said. "But Europe should be one of the leading actors – and it absolutely has what it takes."
Europe, he said, is a hub for medical innovation. Days ago, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to researchers from Berlin and Würzburg for their work on optogenetics. He also pointed to Europe's experience of cooperation among countries with different political and social systems.
Germany, Europe's largest economy, can take on a certain leadership role, Pries said, but only alongside others in a wider group, including France and the United Kingdom. He cited Denmark and Novo as examples of large European companies.
Sovereignty and Supply Chains
Dependencies also raise questions of sovereignty. "If we fail now to agree on common strategies, things will become very, very difficult," Pries said. Europe, he argued, shouldn't allow strategic dependencies in health to take hold.
The German Health Security Act, still in draft form, is due for discussion in early 2027. Pries called it an important step toward pandemic preparedness, but said countries can solve health issues only through multilateral partnership. "No country today can produce medicines or vaccines entirely on its own," he said. Ideally, he added, cooperation would take place under the WHO umbrella.
He also criticised bilateral health-data agreements, a core element of the America First Global Health Strategy. "You cannot claim on the one hand that you are always first and on the other that you are building partnerships," he said. In his view, fair conditions require an overarching framework that the WHO can implement.
Pries acknowledged that the WHO needs change. Reform would be welcome, he said, but it shouldn't follow the idea that multilateral structures are no longer wanted. He noted that the UN system's last major reform came after the Second World War and said he hoped multilateralism could be promoted this time "purely out of a sense of insight." His summary: "Global health is a team sport. We do not want to face a Covid pandemic every five years."
Why This Matters:
Pries's case comes as national governments weigh how much health authority to pool and how much to keep at home. The German Health Security Act, due for discussion early next year, will test whether a national preparedness law can sit alongside the multilateral framework he favours. For taxpayers, the questions are practical: who pays for a stronger European role as US engagement recedes, and how accountable would a WHO-centred structure be to national parliaments? Pries himself called for WHO reform, suggesting even supporters accept that the institution must earn its mandate. Cooperation among sovereign states on shared threats, with clear lines of responsibility, remains worth pursuing. Whether Europe can deliver without adding bureaucracy is the harder test.