A FAIR DEAL

Vytenis Andriukaitis has led a remarkable life: born in a Soviet gulag in 1951 to becoming a co-author of the Independence Act of Lithuania in 1990. He has been a practising cardiovascular surgeon and a senior member of the European Commission and World Health Organisation. Peter Blackburn speaks to a man of many talents for whom social justice means everything

‘Iremember it was a terrible time when he delivered his speech… I was so attacked… I saw this guy who spoke about issues which were far from reality. He sent to people his lies and of course it was painful to see. I was deeply touched by such lies.’

Vytenis Andriukaitis has achieved extraordinary amounts through his various careers in domestic politics, the international arena and medicine. But he has rarely had more coverage in the press than when – following a now infamous speech by archBrexiteer Nigel Farage in the European Parliament, in which he accused MEPs of ‘never having a real job in their lives’ –he was pictured desolate, head in hands, despairing.

It was a moment which united many pro-Europeans in the UK and across Europe in horror – but Farage’s speeches, which often likened the EU to the Soviet Union, were particularly triggering for Dr Andriukaitis, who had dedicated so much of his life to fighting authoritarianism and had been arrested on several occasions in his younger years for his role in anti-Soviet movements. For Dr Andriukaitis the European project was the absolute antithesis of – the antidote to – the sort of authoritarianism that affected his early life and saw his parents deported from Lithuania to a Siberian gulag.

‘It was painful,’ he says, reflecting on Mr Farage’s speech. ‘Absolutely stupid.’ Brexit, and the extrication of Britain from the EU, both politically and in the general sense of distance it created, felt like personal tragedies for Dr Andriukaitis. He feared back then it would be a ‘disaster’ for the UK and hurtful for the EU and none of the events since 2016 have changed his view, particularly when it comes to health and healthcare.

Dr Andriukaitis describes access to healthcare, health systems, food safety, safety standards, research and investment, fighting rare diseases and public health as ‘sensitive areas’ which need cooperation across the continent.

‘It was clear it would be so difficult for all of us and you would see a lot of difficult questions related to practical implementation of your separation, and still now you see some very difficult consequences in areas of people’s health and disease