Журнал. World association for medical law. The COVID-19 pandemic. Volume 39 2

250 Medicine and Law and Medical Devices Directive. It concludes with a brief examination of the economic responses of the EU to the COVID-19 pandemic. An Appendix gives a brief introduction to EU (health) law and history. Keywords: EU; COVID-19; Public Health; ECDC; GDPR Introduction The European Union (EU), with its central objective of creating an internal market, with free movement of people, goods, services and capital across the Member States’ borders, 1 and, with its Treaty-based competence to bind its 27 Member States through legislation and coordinated soft-law responses, 2 is where one might expect to see robust, harmonised, collective action in the face of the current global COVID-19 pandemic. With its broader commitment to human rights, especially in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, one might expect to see measures to ensure equality of access to health care for all the EU citizens. Elements of the EU response to COVID-19 have worked well, particularly the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Early Warning and Response System (EWRS), with the ECDC alerting the Member States to the threat, on the basis of aggregated information. 3 The EU took measures to ensure the availability of medical equipment through the rescEU programme, within the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, 4 and measures to ensure the supply of medical equipment. 5 In February and March 2020, the EU response was limited, as the infection and death rates rose in the different Member States. 1 Article 3(2) Treaty of European Union (TEU), and Article 26 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). 2 TEU and TFEU 3 The European Early Warning and Response System EWRS opened an alert notification on January 9 2020 informing ECDC and all member countries; on January 28 the EU Civil Protection Mechanism was activated; this compares to the official notification of China to the WHO China Country Office on Dec 31on increased numbers of cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology; WHO reported on Jan 5 a disease outbreak news. See, https://www. ecdc.europa.eu/en/early-warning-and-response-system-ewrs ; https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/ en/covid-19/data-collection. Indeed, the EWRS worked so well, that (Brexit) UK wants to stay connected: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/02/uk-seeks-access-to- eu-health-cooperation-in-light-of-coronavirus. (Each last visited 13 June 2020.) 4 https://ec.europa.eu/echo/what/civil-protection/resceu_en (last visited 13 June 2020.). 5 https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/health/coronavirus-response/public-health_ en#health-crisis-management (last visited 13 June 2020.).