ESIP Statement on the EU Cardiovascular Health Strategy
On 16 December, the European Commission presented the EU Cardiovascular Health Plan - 'Safe Hearts Plan', setting out a comprehensive framework to address cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) across Europe. The initiative is structured around three main pillars: prevention, early detection and screening, and treatment and care, with the aim of improving cardiovascular health outcomes and supporting more effective, coordinated action across Member States.
ESIP welcomes this initiative and calls for the implementation of the Safe Hearts Plan to be guided by the best available scientific evidence, with the aim of reducing the prevalence and mortality of cardiovascular diseases in Europe while safeguarding the long-term sustainability of European health and social security systems.
In this context, ESIP set outs its position on issues where the financial exposure of social security institutions is most direct and where the Safe Hearts Plan requires strengthening:
Effective cardiovascular health policy depends on governance structures that protect decision-making from undue commercial influence. Advisory or stakeholder engagement in health policy matters should include transparent conflict-of-interest declarations and exclude entities with direct commercial interests from the formulation of evidence-based recommendations.
The costs associated with alcohol-related cardiovascular diseases are borne directly by social security institutions. For this reason, fiscal, labelling and other measures aimed at reducing availability and consumption should apply to the full range of alcohol products, in line with WHO Best Buys and Other Recommended Interventions for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases.
The Safe Hearts Plan sets the objective of reducing tobacco use to below 5% of the EU population. The upcoming revision of the EU tobacco legislation should implement the full set of fiscal and marketing corrective measures needed to reach this target.
Two-thirds of obesity-related excess mortality is attributable to CVDs. ESIP invites the Commission to reconsider the initiative for a sustainable EU food system and introduce binding front-of-pack labelling requirements, mandatory reformulation targets and binding restrictions on high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) marketing to children.
ESIP supports risk-based early detection and screening. Instead, population-wide screening without demonstrated net benefit carries risks of overdiagnosis, unnecessary follow-up interventions and overmedicalisation. Screening targets should be recommended on the basis of the available evidence and only once they have been assessed against the implementation capacity of national care systems.
The Safe Hearts Plan and derived legislation should strengthen rehabilitation, vocational reintegration and employability as integral elements of Europe's cardiovascular health strategy.
Socioeconomic, occupational, and environmental determinants of cardiovascular health as crucial drivers of disease burden. Addressing these determinants requires a Health in All Policies approach and actionable cross-sectoral measures beyond the Safe Hearts Plan.