Sittings · Document
On an EU cardiovascular diseases strategy
Committee on Public Health · Rapporteur: Romana Jerković
Parliament's resolution on an EU cardiovascular diseases strategy responds to the Commission's Safe Hearts Plan and sets out priorities on prevention, early detection, treatment, primary care, multimorbidity, inequalities, digital health, research and governance.¶¶¶ It calls for a Health in All Policies approach, a horizontal EU prevention plan for non-communicable diseases, and action on tobacco, alcohol, drugs, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and environmental risks.¶¶¶ It asks Member States to adopt or update national cardiovascular health plans aligned with the Safe Hearts Plan, and the Commission to fund, guide and monitor them with targets and an evaluation report.¶¶¶ It demands action on inequalities, including a cardiovascular health inequalities dashboard, gender-responsive care, and better data on women, and calls for an EU mission on CVD prevention and inequalities.¶¶¶ It supports digital health, the European Health Data Space, registries and a knowledge hub, and calls for more cardiovascular research funding and a research and innovation roadmap.¶¶¶
Committee position. The Committee on Public Health proposes a resolution setting out Parliament's position on the Safe Hearts Plan, calling for prevention, early detection, treatment, reduced inequalities, digital health, research and national cardiovascular health plans.¶¶¶
Key points
- Calls for a Health in All Policies approach, health aspects in impact assessments, and a horizontal EU health prevention plan covering all non-communicable disease risk factors.¶¶
- Asks Member States to promote health literacy, first aid education, treatment adherence and psychosocial support, and to strengthen primary care and community pharmacists' role.¶¶¶
- Calls on the Council to adopt recommendations on school health education and on vaccination against respiratory infections as CVD prevention.¶¶
- Calls for action on marketing of unhealthy products, misleading health claims, revision of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, and better occupational cardiovascular risk assessment.¶¶¶
- Demands strong tobacco and nicotine rules: bans on flavours, nicotine limits, excise taxation, inclusion of all non-medicinal nicotine products in the Tobacco Products Directive, advertising rules and smoke-free areas.¶¶¶
- Calls for a revised tobacco control framework to reach less than 5 % tobacco use by 2040, pre-market health impact assessments, and action on alcohol, drugs and energy drinks.¶¶¶
- Calls for EU measures on food environments, front-of-pack nutrition labelling, public procurement of healthy meals, school schemes, and a science-based definition of ultra-processed foods.¶¶¶
- Calls for urban and transport policies that promote physical activity, and for Member States to increase activity and reduce sedentary behaviour among children and young people.¶¶¶
- Welcomes Council recommendations on health checks and personalised treatment, and calls for risk-based screening, family screening, better diagnosis and secondary prevention.¶¶¶
- Calls for timely care, cardiac rehabilitation, CPR and defibrillator training, a European network of cardiovascular centres of excellence, and action on medicine access and health workforce shortages.¶¶¶
- Calls for integrated care for CVD with diabetes, obesity, kidney disease, COPD, aortic disease, liver disease, skin disease, cardiomyopathies and rare CVDs, including paediatric pathways.¶¶¶
- Calls for digital health governance, interoperable records in the European Health Data Space, better CVD data, registries, a knowledge hub, more research funding and a research roadmap.¶¶¶
Who is affected
- Member States: asked to adopt or update national cardiovascular health plans, enforce tobacco and alcohol rules, and fund primary care.¶¶¶
- People with cardiovascular diseases and risk factors: targeted by prevention, screening, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care measures.¶¶¶
- Women: targeted by gender-responsive prevention, diagnosis, research and clinical guidelines.¶¶¶
- Tobacco, nicotine, alcohol, food and advertising industries: subject to proposed marketing, labelling, taxation and product rules.¶¶¶
- Healthcare professionals and health workforce: targeted by training, retention and digital skills measures.¶¶¶
Figures and deadlines
- approximately 1.7 million deaths each year from cardiovascular diseases in the EU¶
- 62 million people in the EU live with the burden of CVDs¶
- close to 13 million new cases of CVDs every year¶
- over 18 % of cardiovascular disease-related deaths in Europe estimated to be caused by environmental risks¶
- estimated annual economic cost of EUR 282 billion¶
- an estimated 80 % of CVDs are preventable¶
- 74 % of the CVD burden attributable to modifiable risk factors¶
- tobacco use responsible for approximately 160 000 cardiovascular deaths in the EU in 2023¶
Legal basis: Articles 7, 9, 168 and 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union¶
Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text and ¶ links to the paragraph it rests on. Check the text itself before relying on it.