The European Union is committed to scaling up its role on public health, at the time when well-known diseases such as cancer and obesity intertwine with new cross-border health threats.
Drawing lessons from this year’s pandemic, which exposed flaws in the EU’s health systems, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen highlighted the need to build a stronger European Health Union in her first State of the Union address.
The Commission president also relaunched the idea of rethinking health competence, which is currently in the hands of member states.
However, the renewed ambition has been undermined by the heavy cuts to the proposed €9.4 billion EU4Health Programme, which has been reduced to a mere €1.7 billion after pressure from the so-called frugal countries – Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden – at July’s EU summit.
In this context, underlining EU priorities on diseases prevention and effective treatment becomes crucial to better design this EU Health Union to come.
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MEP Patriciello: Strengthening EU powers on health is a must, COVID has shown
Setting ambitious health targets at the European level after the COVID crisis is not only necessary but also dutiful, particularly to combat those diseases that have a negative impact on the life expectancy of citizens, centre-right wing lawmaker Aldo Patriciello told EURACTIV in an interview.
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Undernutrition needs a seat at the EU health policy table
A real strategy to tackle undernutrition, and not only obesity and overweight, should be implemented in the EU policy agenda in the wake of the revived cancer fight and COVID-crisis, several lawmakers have stressed in a recent virtual event.
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If you are serious about health, you should be serious about nutrition
Nutrition and nutritional care are eminently (cost) effective interventions and should therefore be a key component and integral part of any EU health initiative that strives for disease prevention, effective treatment and improved patient outcomes. Olle Ljungqvist is Professor of Surgery, …