From the president - Meeting the new health commissioner

 

He had been in his new role as EU health commissioner for only two months, but Olivér Várhelyi was keen to meet with a small delegation from ECO on World Cancer Day, 4 February. It was his first meeting with representatives of Europe’s cancer community.

The agenda was prepared by our policy team, including a one-page briefing note on Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and how it was making a real difference. But he was well ahead of us, knowledgeable about the plan, its implementation status, and the specific challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

He is still assembling his staff, but he had clearly taken the time to do his homework. He came prepared. For the next thirty minutes, we enjoyed a wide-ranging discussion on progress toward HPV elimination, advances on a cancer screening policy sponsored through the EU4Health programme, and opportunities to expand the ‘right to be forgotten’, for cancer survivors in countries across Europe.

We also explored some of the exciting potential of AI to support improved cancer control and how Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan could be a model for any future European Cardiovascular Plan. There are clearly plenty of synergies between the two. We share common goals on prevention and tobacco elimination, and the need to address the challenges of personalised medicine and survivorship.

We’ve learned much from implementing Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, and we are ready to share those lessons with others. At ECO, we’re focused on ‘people-centred healthcare’. That means breaking down institutional silos and contributing wherever we can.

I found the commissioner to be highly pragmatic, a strategist determined to deliver practical policies. He's focused on execution, measurable success, and financial sustainability.

As many of you know, starting in 2027 the EU will be working within a new financial framework, one that will continue until 2034. Health funding will be competing with urgent defence needs across the continent. This is the reality we face.

Now more than ever, it’s incumbent upon all of us to highlight and promote the achievements resulting from EU investment in cancer policy. We need to remind political decision-makers of the lasting benefits of an EU grounded in the people’s priorities.

With best wishes,
Csaba
Prof. Csaba Dégi