Healthy Europe asked three prominent decision-makers why Europe’s health systems are facing a crisis. Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, Sandra Gallina, Director-General, European Commission Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, and Johannes Rauch, Federal Minister of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection, Austria, responded.
Surveys
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were calls to take the momentous step of establishing a European Health Union. What has happened since then? Was it just a case of empty words? Healthy Europe asked two members of the Young Forum Gastein for their opinion.
What are the characteristics of a true European Health Union? Are existing initiatives sufficient for such a union, or are more extensive measures necessary? “Healthy Europe” asked two Young Gasteiners for their opinion.
The possibility of using health promotion to achieve significant improvements in the health of populations at limited expense has been repeatedly discussed and advocated over decades. Healthy Europe asked European experts if this huge potential is now being exploited. Rüdiger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at the WHO; Caroline Costongs, Director of EuroHealthNet; Jan De Maeseneer, Chair of the Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health of the European Commission; and Martin Dietrich, Acting Director of the Federal Centre for Health Education (BzGA) in Germany, took part in the survey.
Healthy Europe asked seven international health experts what they expect from the future after the pandemic is over: Austria’s Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein; Pierre Delsaux, Deputy Director-General of the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission; Marc Pearson and Francesca Columbo from the OECD; Mojca Gabrijelčič Blenkuš, President of EuroHealthNet; Lars Münter, Communications Lead of the Nordic Health 2030 Movement; and Amanda Janoo, Knowledge and Policy Lead of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance.
Portugal’s Minister of Health, Marta Temido; Austria’s Minister of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection, Rudolf Anschober, and Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe explain what “Dancing with elephants”, the main theme of the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) 2020, means to them.