As health challenges continue to mount across the European Union, recent legislative developments such as the Safe Hearts Plan reflect growing momentum for EU-level strategies. The urgency behind these developments is clear: rising mortality from chronic diseases, widespread conditions affecting millions of Europeans, and widening treatment gaps have made the need for action undeniable.
At the second edition of The Parliament’s Health Summit, MEPs from across the political spectrum, industry representatives, and health advocacy organizations convened to address these pressing issues.
Among them, cardiometabolic diseases – a cluster of conditions ranging from type 2 diabetes to high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity – were cited as one of the most urgent threats requiring EU-level intervention. “We need to move beyond campaigns, beyond advocacy,” stated Eirini Agapidaki, Alternate Minister
of Health from Greece. She called for equal secondary prevention action across all member states and stressed the crucial difference between opportunistic screening and universal screening and the vital role of the latter.
Her words were echoed by MEP Peter Agius (EPP, Malta) who reiterated the need for a concrete approach from the bloc, centred on direct intervention in the EU population’s food consumption and lifestyle habits, citing the 2021 Beating Cancer Plan as a successful example to follow. “I hate a Europe that decides for us,” he said, “but we want Europe to help us decide.”
Health inequality was an equally key point of discussion for Agius, who pointed to the 2011 Cross Border Directive, which allows EU citizens to seek treatment abroad and be reimbursed by their home country, as a tool to tackle health inequalities, urging its inclusion in discussions on cardiometabolic treatments. “We need to recognize the fact that some health conditions will kill you in a year in some Member States and where you would have five or ten years survival expectation in other Member States.”
Pawel Tokarzewski, Hungary Country Manager at Eli Lilly underscored how obesity – a catalyst for numerous cardiometabolic conditions – should be recognized as a disease.
We need to recognize the fact that some health conditions will kill you in a year in some Member States and where you would have five or ten years survival expectation in other Member States
Neurological diseases were also raised as a silent epidemic requiring similarly urgent EU-level interventions. As these conditions affect 1 in 3 Europeans, Astrid Arnesen, President, European Federation of Neurological Associations, called for immediate joint action from EU, comparable to the response to COVID-19. She stressed how stigma and unmet medical need exacerbate misunderstanding around these conditions. Olaf Weppner, Vice President Europe Region North at AbbVie, observed also how “neurological diseases are still an empty book compared to other parts of health,” which in turn makes the path to prevention and access to care extremely difficult. However, he also emphasized how a holistic approach, spanning from research to industry, connected to activities in the different Member States and going down to the delivery of healthcare can be a powerful tool for managing these diseases.
MEP Tomislav Sokol (EPP, Croatia), a SANT committee member, highlighted how concrete benchmarks, data and objectives at the EU level are fundamental in combating these diseases from research to treatment, noting at the same time how brain health must be a financial priority for the EU – particularly due its repercussions to the bloc’s productivity and competitiveness and its long-term beneficial effects on the economy.
He stressed how public funding for R&D is not nearly enough and instead advocated for a framework and ecosystem which will actually stimulate innovation in the EU and development of new medicines across the bloc.
Across the political aisle, MEP Marta Temido (S&D, Portugal) emphasized the urgent need for a brain strategy, grounded in a human- rights-based approach, ensuring the right to treatment for those affected. She also drew attention to the shortage of healthcare workers, calling for better planning, training and fairer treatment of existing professionals.
This workforce concern extended beyond neurological diseases. Addressing these broader systemic challenges, MEP Sokol highlighted the need to protect healthcare workers’ quality of life through measures such as reducing excessive shift lengths and investing in better equipment and infrastructure, stating: “I don’t want to be treated by a healthcare worker who hasn’t slept in 36 hours.”
Reflecting even more prominent gaps in prevention, diagnosis, and access to care across the EU, rare diseases were also framed as part of the same systemic challenge. Rosa Castro, Public Affairs Director at EURORDIS Rare Diseases Europe, noted the progress made in the bloc so far, mentioning the orphan drug legislation and the ERDERA partnership as cornerstone actions. She drew attention, however, to the vital need for a collective EU action plan, binding together all initiatives, to further address these conditions which at the moment have little to no treatment options and harmonize care access for patients across Member States.
Rare diseases is a stress test of the Commission’s capacity to bring approaches together with success
Castro also acknowledged how this health area is closely linked to breakthroughs in biotechnology innovations, and therefore the competitive advantage the EU could gain through increased investment.
Enrique Terol García, Health Counsellor of the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU, supported this vision, pointing to Spain’s development of two rare disease strategies with a third underway, which has created an ecosystem of connected expert centres. He insisted on not framing rare diseases as a niche but as “a stress test of the European Commission’s capacity to accelerate and to show the ability to bring approaches together with success.”
Echoing this call for a harmonized action plan, Alessio Amadasi, Vice President, Medical Affairs – EU/International at Chiesi, also further pointed out how the EU could take advantage of available health data, citing the European Health Data Space as a point of reference, which may represent the pathway to unlock earlier diagnosis by recognizing patterns or symptoms that may indicate a rare disease.
Daria Julkowska, Scientific Coordinator at ERDERA, observed how a public-private partnership is fundamental not only from a funding perspective but also from a competence standpoint, remarking how this could accelerate the discovery of treatments and in ERDERA’s case achieving the target of a thousand new therapies by 2030 for these conditions.
The Health Summit underscored a shared recognition that Europe’s health challenges demand more than fragmented national responses. Speakers converged on the need for binding EU-wide strategies that translate into tangible improvements in prevention, diagnosis, and care. Whether rare diseases become a “stress test” of EU coordination or cardiometabolic conditions receive the systematic intervention they demand will depend on the bloc’s ability to move from consensus to implementation.
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