The Council of European Dentists (CED), the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) and the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU) welcome the decision of the European Parliament to vote in favor of the report on the next long-term EU budget – the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) – presented by the Committee on Budgets.

Today the European Parliament recognises that, even in times of budgetary restraints, there is no economic growth without investments in health. The EU Parliament calls for the next MFF to reflect the EU’s responsibility to implement the Sustainable Development Goals on public health, health systems and environment-related health problems. The next MFF should also support Member States in eliminating growing health inequalities.

“A first step has been accomplished by the Parliament which recognises the EU health policy as a priority in the EU agenda.” said Mr Jesus Aguilar Santamaria, PGEU President. “We now appeal to the European Commission to take into account the clear vision on health shown by the Parliament when drafting the Multiannual Financial Framework.

“Although we acknowledge that one of the Union’s objectives is to strengthen the internal market, we underline that investment in health and a healthy workforce is a precondition to a sustainable and inclusive economic growth.” argued

“Challenges such as antimicrobial resistance and vaccine hesitancy, lifestyle related conditions such as obesity, dental decay and health workforce shortages underline the necessity to maintain and enforce EU cooperation to protect the health of European population and beyond.” stated Dr Jacques de Haller, CPME President.

Council of European Dentists (CED) is a European not-for-profit association representing over 340,000 dental practitioners across Europe through 32 national dental associations and chambers in 30 European countries. Established in 1961 to advise the European Commission on matters relating to the dental profession, the CED aims to promote high standards on oral healthcare and dentistry with effective patient-safety centred professional practice, and to contribute to safeguarding the protection of public health. The CED is registered in the Transparency Register with the ID number 4885579968-84.

The Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) represents national medical associations across Europe. We are committed to contributing the medical profession’s point of view to EU institutions and European policy-making through pro-active cooperation on a wide range of health and healthcare related issues. 

• We believe the best possible quality of health and access to healthcare should be a reality for everyone. 
• We see the patient-doctor relationship as fundamental in achieving these objectives. 
• We are committed to interdisciplinary cooperation among doctors and with other health professions. 
• We strongly advocate a ‘health in all policies’ approach to encourage cross-sectorial awareness for and action on the determinants of health. 

The Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU) is the association representing community pharmacists in 33 European countries. In Europe over 400.000 community pharmacists provide services throughout a network of more than 160.000 pharmacies, to an estimated 46 million European citizens daily. PGEU’s objective is to promote the role of pharmacists as key players in healthcare systems throughout Europe and to ensure that the views of the pharmacy profession are taken into account in the EU decision-making process.