In 2014, the European Joint Procurement Agreement (JPA) was introduced as an innovative instrument to organise the procurement of vaccines and medications in preparation for pandemics. An overriding purpose of the JPA is to secure equitable and cost-effective access to medical supplies for participating EU Member States during serious health crises. This article aims to understand the current use of the JPA in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Post-analysis of the recent use of the JPA, the article will discuss how the regional procurement mechanism can be strengthened to support the development of a European Health Union. In particular, the article will firstly question whether the four recent JPA procurement actions facilitated equitable access to medical supplies and services. Secondly, it will ask whether the centralised procurement actions preserved the integrity of the Internal Market. The importance and originality of this study are that it addresses an instrument, the JPA, which has been largely overlooked by legal scholars, and it explores how the provisions for the joint procurement of medical countermeasures as included in Article 5 of Decision 1082/2013/EU on serious cross-border threats to health could be extended to support the functioning of a European Health Union.

中文翻译：

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联合采购协议在 COVID-19 大流行期间的作用：评估其有用性并讨论其支持欧洲卫生联盟的潜力

2014 年，欧洲联合采购协议 (JPA) 作为一种创新工具被引入，用于组织疫苗和药物的采购，为大流行做准备。JPA 的首要目的是确保参与的欧盟成员国在严重的健康危机期间能够公平且具有成本效益地获得医疗用品。本文旨在了解当前 JPA 用于应对 COVID-19 大流行的情况。在分析最近使用 JPA 的情况后，本文将讨论如何加强区域采购机制以支持欧洲卫生联盟的发展。特别是，本文将首先质疑 JPA 最近的四项采购行动是否促进了医疗用品和服务的公平获取。其次，它将询问集中采购行动是否维护了内部市场的完整性。本研究的重要性和独创性在于它解决了一个在很大程度上被法律学者忽视的文书 JPA，它探讨了第 1082/2013/ 号决定第 5 条中包含的联合采购医疗对策的规定/欧盟关于对健康的严重跨境威胁的问题可以扩大到支持欧洲卫生联盟的运作。