One of the core objectives and policies of the European Union is to guarantee a high level of protection of human health, principle as based on art. 168 TFEU .

During the years, public health has become a main topic for the European Union, especially after the Lisbon Treaty strengthening of public health policy. It bases its strategy on 3 objectives: the promotion of a good state of health, the protection of citizens from health threats and the support of health systems. However, healthcare remains under the responsibility of single member states while EU health policy has the role to reach common objectives in the prevention and management of diseases and harmonization of single member states health strategies.

In the last decades, the European Union took part into important improvements of health in its territory such as the increasing of life expectancy from 65 years in 1950s to 80 by 2010 or the dropping of infant mortality of over 80% between 1975 and 2010. However, there are still important problems to tackle including cancer deaths, the ageing of population and the high cost of chronic diseases.

From 1996 to 2002 the European Commission developed 8 actions focusing on single health topics. From this experience in 2003 was eventually created the first EU health programme, the “Community action in the field of health” which, with a budget of EUR 312 million (2003-2007), had a more transversal and multidisciplinary approach than the past single actions. The Programme was followed by a similar one for the period 2008- 2013 and at the moment (2014-2020) is operative the “Third Union action in the field of health”, with a higher budget (EUR 449.4 million). The initiatives supported by this Programme have 4 main objectives:

1) Promote health, prevent disease and foster supportive environments for healthy lifestyles

It supports actions for the prevention of drugs, tobacco and alcohol diseases; measures for chronic diseases and cancer; promotion of good health practices, treatments and information.

2) Protect citizens from serious cross-border health threats

It establishes the “Health Security Initiative”, a legislation for communicable diseases and other threats. In addition, it improves risk assessment and supports capacity building and cross-border cooperation.

3) Contribute to innovative, efficient and sustainable health systems

It promotes health technology assessment; up-take of health innovation and e-health solutions; gives a plan for a better management of healthcare workforce; provides a legislation in the area of medical devices, medicinal products and cross-border healthcare; answers to the ageing of our society with the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing.

4) Facilitate access to better and safer healthcare for Union citizens

It implements the efforts on rare diseases; focuses on patient safety and quality of healthcare; measures to prevent antimicrobial resistance and control healthcare-associated infections; implements the Union legislation in the fields of tissues and cells, blood, organs Health information and knowledge system to contribute to evidence-based decision-making

How is SUDOE contributing to these goals?

During the Programme 2014-2020, Interreg Sudoe has been working to reach the Commission’s objectives financing several transnational projects in South-West Europe.

For instance, ICT4SILVER and PROCURA are two projects responding to demographic changes and coping with the silver economy. The ageing of our society is a fact and ICT4SILVER gives the opportunity to SMEs to adapt their products on market needs, allowing them to provide products and services that improve the independent living of older people and test them in real situations. On the other hand, Procura stimulates the innovation in the silver economy sector at public level. The project matches products and services’ demand with the offer of technology using the public purchasing system. The project has just launched a consultation in this field.

Other projects focuses on specific health problems such as ICTUS NET, which improves the course of treatment of ictus in various regions creating regional registers for a better data management. Another one is GHELP which improves the detection and course treatment of children’s hard-of-heading through the analysis of gene panel. TiCHroN (https://www.tichron.eu/) is also dealing with children but in a different way. The project provides ICT tools for better monitoring, course treatment and empowerment of children with chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma. Technological tools such as an app and e-learning tools have been developed for patients’ use. Finally, ONCONECT makes uniform professional practices, analysing and comparing them with public health policies regarding cancer prevention, diagnosis, therapeutic innovation, and medical data.