European co-operation in cancer prevention
What measures can help prevent cancer? A new EU initiative is looking for answers.
A new initiative has been launched involving European countries who aim to work closely together to prevent cancer. “Joint Action Prevent NCD” was established at the beginning of 2024 by 25 countries in the European Union along with Norway and Ukraine with the aim of developing ways to better prevent cancer and other non-communicable diseases. Representing Germany, the Robert Koch Institute is among those involved, while the initiative is being directed by the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA). Acting Director Dr Johannes Nießen talks about the aims of the project and the benefits of close-knit European collaboration.
Dr Nießen, the aim of the EU initiative is to help make people’s living environment more conducive to good health. How is this to be achieved in practical terms?
If we want to ensure a healthy living environment, it’s crucial for people to be able to choose the healthier option as easily as possible. So living conditions have to be organised in such a way that it becomes easier to lead a healthier life, for example by making school playgrounds more exercise-friendly or by specifically boosting health literacy among vulnerable people in particular.
This is why the Federal Centre for Health Education is implementing various pilot projects dedicated to these topics under the Joint Action. It will provide expert support for the planning and implementation of Europe-wide pilot projects in this area, too, while also supporting the establishment and expansion of local health promotion structures. This will enable the projects to have a sustainable impact across different policy areas.
The programme includes almost all EU countries along with Norway and Ukraine. What advantages do you see in an international programme of this nature?
An international project such as Joint Action Prevent NCD is crucial when it comes to boosting health promotion and prevention in Europe, especially in the context of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and cancer. Through the close-knit sharing of knowledge and experience, European health authorities can learn from each other as they jointly develop and test innovative prevention measures. This will help reduce risk factors for NCDs and cancer, and also break down existing inequalities between European countries.
In which areas do you hope to gain knowledge and benefits through this collaborative venture?
Most European countries face similar problems when it comes to the prevalence and risk factors of NCDs. As such, a project of this type can be very inspiring in terms of enabling us to learn about the approaches used by colleagues who work for European sibling authorities, helping us gain insights into concepts and procedures so as to be able to derive new methods.
By working together, we can improve health promotion and prevention while bolstering the notion of Europe at the same time.
In concrete terms, the Joint Action Prevent NCD project does this in particular by developing and testing measures aimed at reducing health inequality and improving health opportunities for all groups of the population. Parallel testing of these measures at different European locations will help us gain a deeper understanding of their effectiveness and applicability in different contexts. By working together on the same issues, we can improve health promotion and prevention while bolstering the notion of Europe at the same time.
The initiative is currently limited to a period of four years. Would you like to see the collaboration continue beyond this period?
The project Joint Action Prevent NCD pools the results from several previous projects, building on this previous work, and will continue to develop it for four years. The European Commission will probably continue to provide funding for prevention and health promotion beyond this – so there will be follow-up projects, too. All partner countries are also participating in the project under the leadership of a team from Slovenia to ensure that the project content and results are set down as concrete recommendations for action and communicated to the relevant authorities. The aim is to sustainably underpin health-promoting policies, particularly at European level.
