In times of shrinking budgets, the funds available for health and social affairs are under threat. The approach taken by Europe’s health experts to confront this is one of the central issues being discussed at the EHFG 2025. Its main theme is: “Rethinking solidarity in health: healing Europe’s fractured social contract”.
Author: teamword
Digitalisation and AI are experiencing rapid growth, but will this result in better health for all? Experts interviewed by Healthy Europe agree on the potential benefits, while emphasising that the transformation needs proper guidance.
The war in Ukraine has brought destruction, death and physical injuries, but it has also left deep psychological wounds. A project by the European Union was set up to provide relief.
Healthy Europe asked prominent decision-makers whether the social contract and solidarity in general is under threat in Europe and about their vision for health and society for 2040. Valentina Prevolnik Rupel, Minister of Health of the Republic of Slovenia, Ulrike Königsberger-Ludwig, State Secretary, Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection of Austria, Herwig Ostermann, Executive Director of Gesundheit Österreich GmbH, and Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director of the Division of Country Health Policies and Systems of WHO/Europe responded.
Claudia Wild, former CEO of the Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment, on the part played by public institutions in medical innovations and why this is an argument in favour of cheaper therapies.
People who are most in need of healthcare often have the worst access. Measures to reduce social and health inequalities include the European Pillar of Social Rights and a research project on “social vulnerability indices”.
An interview with Elena Moro, President of the European Academy of Neurology, on a holistic understanding of “brain health”, the huge potential of prevention and health promotion, as well as the goals of the Brain Health Mission.
Data, facts and figures on loneliness as a determinant of health and trust in governments and leaders.
An interview with Ilona Kickbusch, global health expert and EHFG Vice-President, about the European Health Union and the role of the European Union in global health policy.
Healthy Europe asked three Young Gasteiners what is necessary to heal Europe’s fractured social contract and about their vision for health and society for 2040.