Plans for a future health strategy for enhanced European co-operation in the field gets stakeholder support, providing that the strategy respects member states’ competencies and focuses on cross-border aspects.
“There is widespread support in the health community for a strong and visionary European strategy on health. The EU is facing many new challenges which need to be tackled in a co-operative and co-ordinated way,” said Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, presenting a summary report of the 153 individual contributions received to the consultation on the future EU health strategy.
According to the report, many stakeholders highlighted the need to design an EU strategy that would “respond to challenges while respecting the competencies of the member states”. Furthermore, the contributors stated: “The Health Strategy should focus attention on issues with cross-border aspects and those that had clear European added value.”
With regards the major themes for the future strategy, the respondents highlighted in particular the need for enhanced European co-operation in the field, including health threats, health inequalities, health information and the promotion of healthy lifestyles.
With regards implementation of an EU strategy for health, the respondents “called for the creation of a new mechanism of structured co-operation employing the tools of the Open Method of Co-ordination“.