EU 'lacked the tools' to deal with severe health crisis

'By taking centralised action, the EU provided emergency support for the delivery of medicines, vaccines, and protective equipment to all member states,' the report states. File picture

The Covid-19 pandemic showed that the EU lacked the tools to handle a severe health crisis and laid bare healthcare inequalities across the bloc, a report by one of its own agencies has found.

A policy report by the Dublin-based European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, known as Eurofound, said that co-ordination failures at the beginning of the crisis delayed action.