With Denmark taking over the EU Council presidency on 1st of July 2025,

a new chapter in European health policy is about to begin.

In this episode of Break the Bubble,

Incisive Health's Senior Council Hans Martens is joined by Edward James Smith,

head of the EU office at the Danish Ministry of the Interior and Health.

They talk about Denmark's priorities for the months ahead,

from strengthening Europe's preparedness to boosting competitiveness,

and why these themes matter now more than ever.

What role will Denmark play in driving progress on key health files,

such as the Critical Medicines Act and the Pharmaceutical Package?

And how can this presidency help set the tone for Europe's health agenda in the years to come?

This is Break the Bubble.

Hello, all, and a warm welcome to our podcast today, which will look into the plans for the Danish EU presidency,

which starts on the 1st of July, and then we'll go until the end of the year

and we'll look in particular into the area of health policy. And to take us into this subject,

we are very, very grateful to be able to welcome the head of the EU office in the Danish Ministry

of Interior and Health, Edward James Smith. So a warm welcome to you, Edward, and many thanks for taking

the time to do this with us today, because I know it's a very busy time for you right now,

and will be for the next six months, I suppose, right? So health is a priority policy area in the EU

of many, many reasons. The status has changed over the years, and it's been boosted by developments like,

for example, a pandemic. And now we're facing a changing situation in the world that will influence

health policy as well, I think, for example, in the direction of becoming more independent

...