Spain Emphasizes Strategic Autonomy in Health as a Pillar of National Security
Spanish parliamentary and health experts emphasize strengthening healthcare resilience and strategic autonomy to safeguard national security amid global uncertainties.
- • Parliamentary session held to discuss strategic autonomy and health as national security priorities.
- • Eduardo Pastor advocates stable public-private collaboration and highlights Cofares’ role and investments.
- • Report reveals Spain’s dependence on external health product sources and calls for enhanced resilience.
- • Consensus on embedding strategic autonomy in health policy aligned with EU frameworks.
Key details
A significant parliamentary session titled ‘Strategic Autonomy and Health: A Priority for Spain and the EU’ was held on January 26, 2026, at the Congress of Deputies to address the imperative of reinforcing Spain’s healthcare system resilience as central to national security. Organized by the Cofares Foundation, the meeting assembled institutional leaders, politicians, public health experts, MEPs, and key stakeholders from the pharmaceutical sector to discuss strategic autonomy in health amid growing geopolitical tensions and supply chain vulnerabilities.
Eduardo Pastor, President of Cofares, underscored the structural vulnerabilities exposed by recent crises, emphasizing the accumulation of risk factors such as military conflicts, economic uncertainty, and climate emergencies. Pastor called for stable public-private collaboration models and presented Cofares' health ecosystem, which managed over 442 million health product units in 2025 and has invested 215 million euros in logistics over five years, as a public service model to efficiently manage strategic medication reserves. He further suggested recognizing healthcare infrastructure investments as a pillar of national defense, akin to NATO’s defense spending.
Ana Pastor, former Congress President and Health Minister, highlighted that strategic autonomy is not only about availability during crises but guaranteeing continuous access to medications and health products for citizens. She urged Spain and the EU to create mechanisms ensuring such access.
The session also introduced a comprehensive report titled ‘Autonomía estratégica en Salud. Prioridad para España y la UE,’ developed by a multidisciplinary expert group with support from the University of Alcalá, Cofares, and Moderna. The report warned of Spain’s high dependence on external sources for medicines, vaccines, and raw materials and recommended enhancing anticipation, resilience, and responsiveness through strengthened multi-level governance and closer alignment of national and European policies.
Government officials and European representatives agreed on the necessity of improving coordination between health policies and industrial strategies to bolster domestic production capacity and reduce reliance on external suppliers. Discussions culminated in a consensus that strategic autonomy must become a structural, enduring element of Spanish policy, with legislative frameworks supporting this goal, while harmonizing with broader EU priorities.
This article was translated and synthesized from Spanish sources, providing English-speaking readers with local perspectives.
