You are invited to provide input for the newly created EU Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Initiative and participate in a call for best practices.
The European Commission (EC) has recently launched “Healthier together” – an EU-level Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Initiative. NCD refers to a group of conditions that are not mainly caused by an acute (short-term) infection. They result in long-term health consequences and often create a need for long-term treatment and care. The initiative aims to support EU countries in identifying and implementing effective policies and actions to reduce the impact of major NCDs and improve citizens’ health.
The initiative covers five main strands: cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic (long-term) respiratory diseases, mental health and neurological (brain) disorders. The initiative will also look at factors that impact people’s health. In each strand, actions aim to reduce health inequalities and integrate health in all policies.
The initiative has identified priorities for the respiratory strand. These include smoking, second-hand smoke, air pollution and diagnostics (factors that contribute to the diagnosis of a disease). Actions can also help to address challenges common to all strands, for example social determinants of health and health literacy.
At the moment the initiative is in a drafting phase. The EC is welcoming health stakeholders’ input. You can do this by submitting written contributions and/or by participating in a series of stakeholder webinars (the next one will take place on 27 April 2022).
The EC is seeking to gather the following contributions:
ELF will provide input for the respiratory strand directly and as part of the European Lung Health Group. ELF is currently gathering feedback from partner organisations, patients and the health community. If you have relevant examples and experience and/or ideas on action priorities and stakeholder collaboration in the field, please send your suggestions to polina.starchenko@europeanlung.org
We will keep you up to date on the process. For more details, please follow the news on the EU Health Policy Platform in a dedicated Stakeholder Network.
The EC has started collecting best practices to implement in EU countries, focusing on the five strands of the “Healthier together” Initiative, as outlined above. The call was launched at the EC Public Health Best Practice Portal. These best practices will create a library of reliable and practical information on implemented practices recognised as the best in the areas of health promotion, disease prevention and the management of NCDs.
Governmental and non-governmental organisations are eligible to take part in this call. The EC will then invite the owners of the top-ranked best practices to present them to EU countries’ representatives in a ‘marketplace event’. During this event, countries may identify best practices for joint/wider implementation across the EU under the EU funding programmes.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 15 May 2022 (midnight CEST). After 15 May 2022, it will still be possible to submit best practices, but they will be evaluated at a later stage.
Learn more about the call and submit your practice.
Read a general overview of what the EU is doing to tackle NCDs.
