Why the Health Care Summit, and why now?

There’s never been a stronger mandate for health at the European institutions. In May citizens sent to the European Parliament representatives pledging to tackle issues such as cancer, climate, and digitalization – all of which relate to health policy.

European Commission President, Ursula Von der Leyen – herself a medical doctor – then selected a European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety with a very strong health background – Stella Kyriakides. She also assigned important files to the Commission’s health department. This is not the picture that was painted a year ago, when most health care policy experts were worrying about a possible dilution of health topics into different European portfolios and departments.

From ensuring access to medicines and reducing vaccine skepticism to advancing e-health, the new Health Commissioner’s priorities are far-ranging and complex, and have been on the radar for some time. Is this the make or break mandate for health at the EU level?

A year into the new Commission’s mandate, this year’s summit will discuss the challenges that this new legislature is planning to undertake and the ones it will have to face, what obstacles stand in their way as well as the potential ways to tackle them – among others (but not restricted to):

• Cancer
• Access to Medicines
• AMR
• Drug shortages
• Drug pricing
• Health and the environment
• European Health Data Space

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