Times of crisis call for well-considered, but bold responses. It is not an option to retreat and wait out the storm. The storm seems only to be getting bigger. Things previously held impossible are happening one after the other. A global pandemic. War in Europe. An area three times the size of Luxembourg burned down this summer alone. Life, for many, is increasingly a struggle to make ends meet. And all this on top of already pre-existing inequities.
Luckily, and as illustrated by this month’s newsletter, civil society, expressing people’s aspirations for a healthy and sustainable Europe, is energised to push for change. In partnership with forward-looking public institutions, such as front-running governments, a committed European Commission and a change-oriented World Health Organization, we stand a chance to put people’s and the planet’s well-being at the heart of our economies and daily lives.
Our task in the coming months is to transfer this energy into concrete, transformative actions. The upcoming European elections will be a very consequential step in this. We need a Europe that doubles down on initiatives like the Green Deal and takes its actions to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs) to a next, more comprehensive level. The stakes couldn’t be higher, the prize – a future we would all want to live in.