Prevention efforts are key to tackling the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Europe, according to a draft report presented by EU lawmakers on Wednesday (30 July).

Non-communicable diseases – such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases – account for 90% of all deaths in the EU, and 70% of all premature deaths in Europe.

EU lawmakers have stressed the need to improve prevention strategies and the benefits this would bring to healthcare systems. 

“We need to take action to prevent premature deaths, improve the quality of life of citizens and ensure the EU’s competitiveness,” liberal Danish MEP Erik Paulsen, rapporteur of the draft report on NCDs, said on Wednesday during the report’s presentation in the subcommittee on public health (SANT).

He also added that the number of non-communicable diseases will increase because of the health situation of an ageing population, which will be a “big challenge to the European health system and to the labour market”. 

To decrease these numbers, the report calls to focus on prevention, which it argues is currently not getting enough funding: in 2018, only 3% of total health expenditure in the EU was spent on prevention. 

At the same time, it shows how NCDs not only entail a big health but also financial burden, costing EU economies more than €100 billion annually. 

Risk factors

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), people of all ages are vulnerable to risk factors that contribute to NCDs, like exposure to tobacco smoke, harmful use of alcohol unhealthy diets and physical inactivity.

WHO stresses that “an important way to control NCDs is to focus on reducing risk factors associated with these diseases”. These are the so-called modifiable behavioural risk factors and are the ones that can be addressed in a faster way through prevention. 

Milka Sokolović, executive director of the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), participated in a SANT committee hearing with stakeholders in June as they consider that current policies addressing the NCDs are insufficiently effective.

Sokolović explained to EURACTIV their persistence in addressing them correctly and with the necessary stress in the report. 

With this in mind, EPHA has presented amendments to the draft document regarding the “intrinsic harm of alcohol consumption”, and the “detrimental impact of unhealthy diets” and advocating for stronger measures against tobacco and alcohol. 

The European Union has put in place many initiatives with the same objective. Some of the most recent ones are the Commission’s Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan or the Council’s recommendation on smoke-free environments. 

New tools or better use of the existing ones 

However, risk factors are not only linked to individual behaviours. Things like certain chemicals or air and water pollution can also be the cause of non-communicable diseases.

In the Parliament, some lawmakers remembered other documents like the update of the REACH regulation on the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals, which while being in the work since 2022 keeps being delayed. 

This regulation aims to protect human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals, which can also be a factor for non-communicable diseases.  

Together with REACH, Green French MEP Michèle Rivasi mentioned the extension of the use of glyphosate in the EU, a herbicide whose use was supposed to be banned in December 2022 but was later extended. According to her, the delay in these regulations shows a “lack of consistency between policies”. 

Swedish Popular MEP Sara Skyttedal, also highlighted some of the reports the EU Parliament has worked on that include non-communicable diseases, like one adopted by the Beating Cancer Committee “should continue to guide us through this matter”. 

Another document that lawmakers mentioned as a basepoint is the file adopted on lessons learned from the COVID pandemic, from where they also take the need for collaboration. They agreed that while health is a national competence, COVID has shown that EU member states can collaborate. 

“When it comes to health we need more Europe, no less Europe”, said Italian MEP Angela Danzi.

[Edited by Giedre Peseckyte/Nathalie Weatherald]

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