The European Union Global Health Strategy (GHS) has the potential to step up the European initiative towards a healthy future for the European neighbourhood. The strategy looks to ensure European health security, resilient health systems and the fundamental rights on which the Union is based upon. To do this, the strategy’s priorities are:
- investing in the well-being of all people
- reaching universal health coverage with stronger health systems
- combatting current and future health threats.
Although the proposed actions that this strategy hopes to achieve are ambitious, they do not fully address the extent of the health challenges that Europe and neighbouring countries will face. Three topics in particular are deserving of larger commitments in the strategy include:
- climate change
- antimicrobial resistance
- access to affordable medicines
EPHA believes that these factors should have greater inclusion, emphasis and specific plans within the EU Global Health Strategy to face global health challenges. We set out a number of recommendations on how the Global Health Strategy can better include and address these critical public health issues.
The Strategy needs to seize this opportunity to place global public health in the spotlight.