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”.
Democracy and health
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.
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.
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”.
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.
In this interview, we spoke to Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat from the WHO Regional Office for Europe about why democracies are good for our health, what should be done to counteract the “infodemic”, and why trust in health systems is essential.
Data and facts from studies and evaluations on demographic change, on the state of democracies around the world, on “healthy buildings” and also on doctors and nurses in the OECD countries.
Citizen participation in decision-making that relates to a country’s health system can help to improve it – as long as the process is genuine and the findings are taken seriously.