DiCE, together with the EU Health Coalition, urges future EU leaders to prioritise health and life sciences. Ahead of next year’s European elections, a number of healthcare actors, including DiCE, are examining what a more health-focused EU should look like.

DiCE has the privilege of working with several like-minded partners with whom our policy priorities align. Hence, DiCE will not be issuing a separate manifesto but putting its efforts into ensuring that our collective voice as health actors is heard.

In the European elections build-up, we will present manifestos we deeply support. Today, we focus on the need for the health and life science sectors to be recognised as pillars of the European economy, complementing and enhancing the green and digital transitions.

European healthcare systems are facing a perfect storm of ageing populations, chronic disease prevalence, a shortage of health professionals, and unfolding energy, climate, and cost-of-living crises. The world is also living in a new period of rapidly advancing science and groundbreaking innovation that, from genomics to data analytics, is pushing the boundaries of what has been possible for health to become better and creating new opportunities to meet the unmet health needs of underserved populations as well as provide better health for future generations. A great deal is at stake for Europeans’ health and well-being, as well as for the continent’s economic resilience, prosperity, strategic autonomy, and the capability to remain at the forefront of science and research.

With the upcoming elections to the European Parliament in 2024, we can focus on the need for a robust and integrated approach to health policy at the European level based on a “One Health” framework. We must address this issue to protect our people, prosperity, and the planet.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE IN PRACTICE? Discover the 5 recommendations:

• Make European health systems truly integrated and people-centred
• Invest in upskilling the European health workforce
• Reframe healthcare expenditure as an investment, not a cost
• Create the basis for Europe as a proper research and innovation hub
• Create a health and life science office in the European Commission, reporting to a Vice President, to spearhead a coherent European strategy for this sector.