Prevention is better than cure

Just a couple of months after it launched its new Best Practices Portal, the European Commission announces the creation of a Steering Group on Promotion and Prevention.

Composed of representatives of EU Member States and chaired by the EC, the Steering Committee aims to help EU Member States reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals related to health and to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable disease.

These initiatives clearly illustrate the Commission’s willingness to focus – and invite Member States to do so – on dedicating time and resources to measures for preventing chronic diseases, including chronic kidney disease, rather than on curing them.

In practice, the Steering Group will provide expert advice to the Commission on developing and implementing activities in the field of health promotion, disease prevention and the management of chronic diseases. Sharing best- practices and experiences between EU Member States will form an important part of the work of the Committee. The EC best practice portal on non-communicable diseases launched in April 2018 provides a useful tool in this framework.

Thought as a ‘one-stop shop’ for consulting good and best practices and submitting practices for assessment, the online portal currently references best practices from over the last two years and covering actions funded under the EC Health Programmes.

In addition to advising the Commission on the selection of best practices, the newly established Steering Group will work with the European Commission to replicate and implement successful projects in other EU member States and/or scaling these up at the European level – using the funds from the EU Health Programme or other EU financial instruments.

The EC Expert Group will hold its first formal meeting on 6 November 2018 in Luxembourg.

More information on the Steering Group here.