The Corona pandemic disrupted production and supply chains worldwide. The Federal Government therefore sought, among other things, to establish production capacities for medical consumer goods in Germany to enhance pandemic prevention and management. However, the funding programmes set up for this purpose were not very successful: The processing of applications took too long, and the products were not competitive. The establishment of a "National Reserve for Health Protection" has failed so far.

Germany faced enormous challenges as a result of the Corona pandemic. The German Parliament declared an epidemic emergency of national concern on 29 April 2020. The Federal Government decided, among other things, to create a "National Reserve for Health Protection". This National Reserve was supposed to ensure the preventive health care of the German population, with medical consumables for six months. To date, the ministries responsible have not even presented a concept for this National Reserve. On 8 April 2023, the epidemic emergency ended.

Despite the lack of a concept, the government took sizeable measures to enhance pandemic preparedness:

• Funding for the short-term creation of national production capacities for protective masks: However, this financial support only launched when the import activities as to foreign goods had already largely recovered. Additionally, the prices of the German products were not competitive despite the financial support.

• Grants for the national production of vials for vaccines: 85 per cent of the non-repayable grants were paid to two manufacturers, which were, however, also queried in advance to assess needs.

• Funding of innovative personal protective equipment: After nine months of processing, only two applications out of 182 had been approved, and 70 were still being processed.

Due to these shortcomings, the budget funds made available for the measures by the German Parliament were far from being exhausted. 

Lack of coordination between ministries

The coordination on pandemic preparedness across all ministries was to be ensured by a task force. However, a lack of regulations on the distribution of funds as well as a lack of cross-governmental decision-making structures prevented effective cooperation. Moreover, the assignment of lead responsibilities for the development of a concept for the National Reserve remained unclear.

The supply of protective masks to the population was emblematic for the lack of cooperation between the ministries. While the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action tried to ramp up national production capacities for protective masks through funding efforts, the Federal Ministry of Health procured protective masks abroad on a large scale without any consultation. The economic ministry subsequently complained that the masks procured did not meet the requirements set under the National Reserve.

Better cooperation needed

The Federal Government must learn from the Corona pandemic in order to be adequately prepared for future crises. We therefore expect the ministries to improve their cooperation and to jointly develop recommendations for action for coming crises.