
EU’s Stockpiling Strategy
The Commission wants to strengthen the EU's resilience to crises.
CC – 05/2025
The European Commission intends to present its EU stockpiling strategy on 25th June. The aim is to ensure the availability of critical goods and access thereto during crisis situations - both at European level and within the EU Member States. This strategy is a central component of the “Preparedness Union Strategy”, published on 26th March and also announced by the Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, as being one of her political priorities. It takes a cross-sectoral all-hazards approach.
Stockpiling as a strategic safety tool
The planned stockpiling strategy goes way
beyond select emergency measures. It should encompass all forms of stockpiling
- from public and private initiatives to implementing measures along the supply
chains as well as promoting strategic autonomy. Its focus will be on medical
countermeasures, critical raw materials, food, water, energy equipment and
medical devices, such as protective equipment.
According to Hadja
Lahbib, the EU Commissioner for Resilience, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis
Management, the EU’s stockpiling strategy will be a ‘key element of our
preparedness’ in order to remain capable of acting in any crisis. It is
especially important here to ensure that Member States do not compete for the
same resources. Therefore, centralised EU stockpiles should be combined with
national stockpiles, supported by public/private partnerships that promote both
efficiency and scalability.
An integrated approach
What we already know: The stockpiling
strategy will not be a customised strategy for medicinal products or medical
devices, but it will be embedded in a comprehensive all-hazards approach that
is designed to be both interdepartmental and cross-sectoral. EU Commissioner
Hadja Lahbib will be responsible for the strategy as part of her Resilience and
Crisis Management portfolio, not EU Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi.
Nevertheless, the strategy will also affect medicinal products, medical devices
and it might also affect the tasks of the EU's Health Emergency Preparedness
and Response Authority (HERA).
It will be interesting to see how the
distinction between this Act and the Critical Medicines Act will be drawn up,
as the draft regulation also includes an article about stockpiling of medicinal
products. MEPs in the European Parliament are already calling for broadening
the scope of the currently very inconsistent stockpiling obligations applicable
in the Member States. The possible establishment of a strategic EU reserve for critical
medicinal products is also being discussed.
Strategy expectations
German Social Insurance (DSV) sees the
planned EU’s stockpiling strategy as an important opportunity to strengthen
supply security in the healthcare system – particularly with regard to the
supply of critical medicines. Targeted stockpiling can help to increase the
market availability of relevant products and avoid or at least minimise supply
shortages. However, for this to succeed DSV believes that specific practical
measures are needed, which they have outlined in the form of Feedback.
For example, there should be mandatory stockpiling of critical medicines.
Pharmaceutical companies will have to create appropriate stockpiles, renew them
regularly and face clear sanctions in the event of violations. The EU’s
strategy should be supplemented by national stockpiling mechanisms that are
customised to match the relevant national circumstances and incorporate
existing systems.
Finally, transparency along the supply
chain is crucial, as this is the only way to reliably plan and manage supplies
during an emergency. An improved database covering the entire supply chain is
essential for ensuring this.