The Spanish Defence Minister, Ms. Margarita Robles Fernández, stated in the Foreign Affairs and Defence Council of the -European Union on November 20, 2021, that Spain would organize and host, in collaboration with the European External Action Service, the first European Union Congress on Military Health Services with the aim of exchanging the lessons identified from the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening a military health network at a European level (figure 2).

Figure 2. News of the first Congress of Military Medicine of the EU..Available at: https://www.defensa.gob/gabinete/notas prensa/2020/11  

Together with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Mr. Josep Borrell -Fontelles, they sent an official invitation to the nations to participate in the “1st EU Congress on Military Health Services”, to be held in Madrid from October 6 to 8, 2021 (figure 3).

Figure 3. Joint official invitation letter to the EU member states. 

The Congress would analyse the role of the EU Military Health Services in support of civil authorities during the pandemic; operational challenges in a state of uncertainty, including improving medical support to EU missions and operations; and the establishment of strategic reserves of medical stockpiles, as well as -European vaccination plans, in close coordination with the European -Commission.

In turn, the Chief of Spanish Military Medical Services, Major General PHA Mr. Juan José Sánchez Ramos, on behalf of the -Minister of Defence, sent greetings to his member states counterparts, encouraging them to actively participate in the Congress through the presentation of communications about their experiences during the health crisis, or other aspects related to the chosen topics that each nation considered appropriate to share and debate (figure 4).

Figure 4. Chief of Spanish Military Medical Services invitation letter.