In light of the United Nations High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), which will take place on 27 September in New York, ECDA and the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) have developed a set of recommendations with achievable steps to advance action on the prevention and control of NCDs in Europe.

The recommendations are addressed to the European Union institutions, and drawn to the attention of the Austrian Government, which will hold the EU Council Presidency at the time of the Meeting, and the Italian Government, co-facilitator of the Meeting.

Read the paper here.

“The prevalence of preventable chronic diseases is unacceptably high in Europe while we have solid evidence on the benefits of prevention and on how prevention can be applied efficiently. We now need political will to act from Governments and leadership from the EU — not only to support Member States but also to implement EU-wide measures where it has the competency to do so”.

Prof. Em. Raymond Vanholder, Chairman, ECDA

“The EU is lagging behind other parts of the world when it comes to policies to protect and improve our health. There is much more European governments and EU institutions can do, starting with living up to the aspirations of leadership for health, by sending Heads of State and Government to the UN High level meeting in September. Italy, as a co-facilitator of the meeting, has a leading role as well as Austria, as the EU Presidency. NGOs will be watching closely to see if the governments of both countries put people’s health ahead of vested commercial interests.”

Nina Renshaw, Secretary General, EPHA