Chair, Honourable Minister Dr Alma Möller,
Excellencies, honourable ministers and heads of delegation,
Officer-in-Charge Dr Corinne Capuano,
Staff of the regional and country offices, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, it’s an honour to be back in Copenhagen.
Let me start by thanking the Government and people of Denmark for hosting the Regional Office.
I also thank Dr Corinne Capuano for her leadership, and the staff of the regional and country offices for their hard work through a very challenging period.
Despite the challenges of the past year, there has been real progress, as the Regional Director’s report shows.
In particular, I congratulate Denmark on eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis;
Kazakhstan on reaching WHO Maturity Level 3 for regulating medicines and vaccines;
Albania and Armenia on achieving hepatitis B control targets;
And Belarus, Tajikistan and Ukraine for introducing the HPV vaccine – Ukraine, of course, in the middle of a war.
The Region remains polio-free, measles cases fell sharply last year, and for the first time, every State Party in the Region reported on its capacities under the International Health Regulations.
Alcohol consumption is down, countries are using health taxes and marketing restrictions to protect health, and the Region is leading on climate and health.
And in Ukraine, WHO has sustained one of its most complex emergency operations anywhere.
But serious challenges remain.
Many households still face catastrophic health spending.
Noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions take a heavy toll, and the health workforce is under severe strain.
Measles transmission has returned to several countries that had eliminated it.
And climate change, violence against women and conflict – in Ukraine and elsewhere – continue to threaten health.
The agenda before you addresses several of these challenges directly.
The new strategy on healthy ageing is an opportunity not only to add years to life, but life to years.
The roadmap for action on artificial intelligence in health is an opportunity to ensure that AI is safe, ethical and equitable;
That it strengthens rather than fragments health systems;
And that it narrows inequalities, rather than creating new ones.
The Regional Office is already showing how AI can make WHO itself more efficient, through its in-house platform, Pera, which is now being used across the Organization.
Your discussion on a new strategy for noncommunicable diseases and health promotion is also an opportunity to put the Region back on track.
Forty years after the Ottawa Charter, the evidence on what works is clear: health taxes, marketing restrictions, smoke-free laws, and primary health care.
The task now is implementation.
I also welcome today’s technical briefing on primary health care, and to discussing how to take forward the Declaration of Alma-Ata in a profoundly different world.
I welcome the Regional Office’s special initiative on primary health care for the future, which is breaking down silos between programmes and offering countries more coherent support.
Primary health care is also the foundation of health security.
That is one of the many lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to those lessons, we took steps to strengthen every dimension of pandemic prevention, preparedness and response: early warning, finance, equitable sharing of medical countermeasures, sharing of pathogen information, and more.
Most importantly, you, our Member States, also took historic steps to strengthen the international legal framework for global health security.
In 2024 you adopted amendments to the International Health Regulations, and last year, 2025, you adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement, a landmark instrument of international law.
The final piece of the puzzle is the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system, which you are continuing to negotiate.
Although differences remain, I am confident that you will find common ground, just as you did with the agreement itself.
It’s essential you do, so the Pandemic Agreement can be opened for signature, begin the process of ratification and enter into force.
The next pandemic will not wait. Already this year we have had two significant reminders of the ever-present threat of epidemics and pandemics:
First, the hantavirus outbreak on board the cruise ship MV Hondius, which affected mainly British and American passengers.
Several Member States in this Region played an important role in the response:
The United Kingdom first notified WHO of the outbreak;
Switzerland sequenced the virus;
Spain managed the safe disembarkation of passengers and crew in Tenerife, and the Minister Monica who led the operation is here with us, and I joined her in Tenerife – muchas gracias Monica.
The European Union also supported repatriation flights;
And the Netherlands provided care for the crew.
Thanks to all of you, that outbreak was brought swiftly under control.
But it was followed soon after by another outbreak that is not yet under control: the 17th Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
We see some positive signs in that outbreak, but still there are major concerns.
I thank the countries of this Region, and the European Union, for supporting the response.
That response has been made more difficult by the impact of funding cuts in the past 18 months.
Although the impact on countries is our greatest concern, the past year-and-a-half was also challenging for WHO itself, as I said in my remarks earlier.
Sudden cuts in our funding forced us to reduce our budget and our workforce.
I have always believed the biggest risk to WHO is not losing funding, but losing our integrity.
Funding can be restored. But once integrity is lost, it is very difficult to recover.
That is the choice WHO faced. We chose to protect our integrity, stand with science, and manage the financial consequences.
I want to assure you that we have now reached a point of stability, and we are moving forward as an Organization that is leaner, more focused and better equipped to serve Member States.
By many measures, WHO is in a better financial position.
Our reserves are now double what they were when I began as Director-General.
Our budget is 23% larger. And we are now fully funded for the current biennium.
Having said that, most voluntary contributions remain earmarked, leaving pockets of poverty in parts of our work.
That’s why the plan that you, our Member States agreed in 2022 to progressively increase assessed contributions to 50% of the base budget is so important.
If the first two increases in assessed contributions had not happened,
we would have lost many more colleagues than we did. Thanks to you, that was minimized.
Approving the next three increases in assessed contributions – beginning with the next one at the World Health Assembly next year – is essential for protecting WHO’s integrity, independence and expertise.
Indeed, the prioritization and realignment exercise that we undertook last year was aimed at protecting WHO’s technical expertise to the greatest degree possible.
At the global level, most of the reduction in headcount was managed by retirement, early retirement and abolishing vacant positions that were deemed non-essential.
Then we cut from the top, reducing the number of Assistant Directors-General by half, and directors by almost half.
Headquarters absorbed most of the impact of forced separations, although I know that the European Region also took a large part of the burden.
I know how painful this period has been for the staff of this Region, and I thank those who have left for their service.
The Regional Office has also worked to protect country capacity, maintaining 33 country-level offices while tailoring its presence to each country’s needs.
This is also the focus of the Action for Results Group, which is helping to achieve an effective, efficient, empowered and results-focused country presence through the Core Country Office Model.
I believe strongly that WHO can do more with less – which does not mean working our staff even harder.
It means leveraging our unique convening power, including through our network of collaborating centres – a rich resource of expertise across the full breadth of our work that we have not fully tapped.
That’s why in April this year we convened the first Global Forum of WHO Collaborating Centres in Lyon, and why we are planning another forum next year.
I welcome the information session on leveraging WHO collaborating centres that you will hold on Wednesday, at the request of Member States.
This Region has 322 WHO collaborating centres – the most of any region – and 53 new centres were designated in the past year alone.
The Regional Office is connecting them more strategically to its priorities, through regular briefings, national meetings and thematic networks.
It is also drawing on experts seconded by Member States, and on the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.
You are showing what we need to do on a global scale.
Doing more with less also means leveraging the power of the global health architecture, working to grow other global health institutions.
The financing shocks of the past year exposed weaknesses across that architecture that can no longer be ignored:
Duplication, fragmentation, competition for resources, and systems that do not always respond to country priorities.
While WHO plays a unique and irreplaceable role in global health, we cannot do everything, and we must recognize that there are others who do some things better than us.
So we have to use our convening power to the maximum.
At the World Health Assembly in May, Member States asked the Secretariat to host a joint process to reform the global health architecture so that it becomes more country-centred, inclusive and transparent.
A Task Force has been established, chaired jointly by Germany and China, and will report later this year.
This Region must have a strong voice in shaping that reform.
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Chair, Honourable Ministers, dear colleagues and friends,
As you know, this is my final Regional Committee meeting for Europe as Director-General, before I complete my tenure in August next year.
In my final 10 months, I have four particular requests.
First, I ask you to approve the next increase in assessed contributions at next year’s World Health Assembly.
The first two increases have made WHO more resilient and independent. We must continue on that path.
Next year’s increase, together with those approved in 2023 and 2025, will be a valuable gift to the next Director-General, whoever that may be.
Second, I ask you to consolidate the hard work we have done through the transformation, prioritization and realignment, to build a WHO that is better positioned to serve Member States with neutrality, impartiality, integrity and independence.
Third, I ask you to engage actively in the reform of the global health architecture. Do not leave the design of the future system to others.
Make sure it reflects the needs of this Region and puts countries at the centre.
Fourth, I ask you to finalize negotiations on the PABS annex, so that the Pandemic Agreement can enter the ratification process and come into force.
Chair, Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve you as Director-General.
I thank the Member States of the European Region for your support over the past nine years, for your commitment to multilateralism, and for the leadership this Region continues to provide.
I look forward to your support in the coming year.
And I remain committed to serving you, and the people of this Region, with everything I have for the remainder of my tenure.
Tak skal du have. I thank you.