Addressing the Burden of Cardiovascular Disease in a Year of Transition

ended

In 2019 EHN will focus on creating awareness of the human and economic burden of CVD among newly-elected MEPs and new EU Commissioners and their cabinets (new EU mandate). We will do so by intensifying interaction and communications with the new EU mandate and organising a meeting at the end of the year, to present our proposal for a plan for action on CVD in Europe. We do not expect any major new policy developments in 2019, due to the upcoming elections to the European Parliament and the change of EU Commissioners, so we will grasp the opportunity to review our papers on e-cigarettes, CVD risk assessment programmes and physical activity. We will update them with the most recent evidence and disseminate them widely to selected target audiences. We will continue to work on policies that are going through the legislative process, debated in European Fora, or likely to be taken up at EU member state level. Policy areas include agriculture; trade; food information (front-of-pack labelling) and composition (trans fatty acids); and marketing of HFSS food to children. A key role, as a member organisation, is to support our members by providing information, enhancing their capacities, and facilitating knowledge-exchange. Our role is also to enable them, and their constituencies, to participate in and influence debates on health policy, policies that impact on cardiovascular health, and health regulations. To that end we will organise five meetings for our members and commission research, including on e-/mHealth and how it benefits cardiovascular patients. 2019 will also see the EHN Research Platform swing into action. In conclusion, we believe that our 2019 operational objectives and the activities we have selected to achieve them, will contribute to achieve the general and specific objectives of our FPA. We believe that putting cardiovascular health on the agenda of new MEPs/Commissioners will benefit EU citizens as well as the EU economy.