Warsaw, 25 March 2025
On Tuesday, 25 March 2025, during the Informal EPSCO Health Council, EU health ministers discussed how to protect the mental health of children and young people in the age of technology and social media, the factors influencing the effectiveness of prevention programmes, and how to ensure equitable access to medicines across the EU.
The meeting was chaired by Minister of Health Izabela Leszczyna. European Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, Olivér Várhelyi, also took part in the informal gathering of European health ministers.
Mental health of children and young people
Ministers highlighted the growing impact of digital technologies, including social media, on the daily lives of younger generations. Increased stress levels, anxiety, and depression are among the most common consequences of excessive exposure to technology.
In response to these challenges, the Polish presidency stressed the need to incorporate digital factors into mental health policies and take action at the international level. Given the cross-border nature of these issues, experience-sharing and cooperation among EU member states are essential for effective prevention. Ensuring the mental well-being of young people is key to building a strong and healthy Europe.
Investing in public health and prioritising the mental well-being of children and young people lays the foundation for a healthy and safe world. Small actions taken today lead to significant change tomorrow.
Izabela Leszczyna, Polish Minister of Health
The Polish presidency aims to facilitate the exchange of experiences on mental health policies for children and young people and initiate discussions on creating a shared European catalogue of best practices. This initiative will serve as a valuable tool for improving mental health care for young people in the future.
A key milestone in these efforts will be the Council Conclusions, which the Polish presidency plans to adopt in June during the formal EPSCO Health Council.
Pharmaceutical security in the EU
A key part of the discussion at the informal meeting of health ministers focused on pharmaceutical security in the European Union. Ministers addressed this issue from the patient’s perspective, emphasising the need to guarantee access to safe and effective treatments. Policies on medicine security must prioritise patient needs, ensuring both public health and the stability of healthcare systems across the EU.
Only joint action at the EU level can ensure that patients across Europe have access to essential medicines under all circumstances.
‘It is common wisdom that we need to get the security of supply also by the security of manufacturing capacities established in Europe,’ said Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare Olivér Várhelyi at the press conference at the end of the informal meeting.
The discussion confirmed that we need a market that is more attractive when it comes to investments, and a market which is more attractive for supply. But also more attractive to create the stability of supply by the member states.
Olivér Várhelyi, EU Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare
‘The discussion confirmed that we need a market that is more attractive when it comes to investments, and a market which is more attractive to supply. But also more attractive to create the stability of supply by the member states, because after all it is the member states’ responsibility to get their healthcare systems running together with the security of supply of services and medicinal products,’ underlined Commissioner Várhelyi.
Health promotion and disease prevention
During the meeting, key public health and disease prevention issues were discussed, including:
- Effectiveness of prevention strategies and programmes
- member states’ responses to emerging health challenges
Ministers examined how public policies impact people’s health, particularly regarding smoking, alcohol consumption, and drug use. They also explored how education and regulatory tools can help limit access to harmful substances. The discussion underscored the importance of joint action and cross-sectoral health education to promote better health outcomes across the EU.
Learn more
- See Council’s backgrounders on: EU health policy, mental health, pandemic preventionand health and safety at work.
- Event page of this meeting: Informal meeting of health ministers 24-25/3/2025
- Upcoming EPSCO Health Council: Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (Health) 20/6/2025.
Source – Polish EU Presidency
Press remarks by EU Commissioner Várhelyi following the Informal meeting of Health Ministers
Warsaw, 25 March 2025
“Check against delivery”
Dear Minister Leszczyna,
I want to first of all thank you and your team for this day. It’s been a very busy day. The Minister made us work really hard, but I think it was worth it, because we have probably covered the three main topics of this whole mandate.
The discussion revolved around the main challenges Europe and its population are facing when it comes to health. And I think I need to congratulate the Presidency for picking the right topics that are going to shape our future for the next five years or maybe even further. Because when you look through the issues, the Minister already explained it, we have touched upon the security of supply of medicines, notably in light of the shortages of critical medicines.
This is not a new topic. This is a topic that has been with us since the COVID pandemic. But in parts of Europe, this has always been a problem. And now this problem is not only accepted, but for this problem, we have proposed a solution. A solution, the Minister already mentioned, which this Commission has put on the table in the first 100 days to address this market failure that we all see, so that our people can get the medicine they need when they need it and where they need it. And this proposal was made on the 100th day of this Commission, because we consider this to be a long overdue problem that needs sorting out.
And from the discussion we have had today, I think we can all go home by concluding that the proposal is the one to work on. And the proposal contains all the elements the Member States have been looking for to be able to address these problems and to help create markets that we have not seen before and help create markets that will provide security. On the other hand, the proposal also provides opportunity for European companies to come back and produce these medicines in Europe or on our continent in candidate countries.
And this is another topic that we have discussed, because I think by now it’s common wisdom that we need to get the security of supply also by the security of manufacturing capacities established in Europe. So the discussion confirmed that we need a market that is more attractive when it comes to investments and a market which is more attractive to supply, but also more attractive to create the stability of supply by the Member States, because after all it is the Member States’ responsibility to get their healthcare systems running together with the security of supply of services and medicinal products.
Now, the Minister also mentioned the other part of the work when it comes to the pharmaceutical sector, that is the so-called pharma review, as it is called in the Brussels gibberish. Basically, it’s a review of the pharmaceutical legislation of the European Union, which is more than 20 years old now. And we have high hopes that also based on the discussion that we have had today, the Polish Presidency would be able to make a big move and get the Council to agree, something that was not obvious in previous times. So we want to help the Presidency to get there, and I think that today’s discussions were also encouraging in that regard.
The other interesting discussion we had was about the non-communicable diseases. Non-communicable diseases meaning mainly cancer and cardiovascular diseases. For those of you who are not proficient in public health data, it’s enough to tell you that it is more than two-thirds of the premature death in Europe. These two groups of illnesses, cardiovascular and cancer. We are in Central Europe, in Poland, here it is cardiovascular, like it is everywhere else in Central Europe, which is the most prominent cause of death. And it is also a fact that 70% of these diseases and deaths could be prevented.
They could be prevented by creating real choices for the people. Because yes, we have had a decrease in diseases before the COVID crisis, still in terms of premature death, it is still the leading cause for death. It is also clear that after COVID, unfortunately, these numbers are now peaking up. And it is also clear that even though we live longer, our years spent in health are getting shorter. So this is clearly a main challenge for this generation, but also for the next generation.
Because we have also discussed the fact that we have a whole new generation, the young generation, the under 30, who are even more prone to cardiovascular diseases. If you look at the latest figures that we have just published a month ago, what you will find is that in the last 10 years, the number of young suffering from diabetes and obesity has doubled. We’re talking about 20% on average of the population of the young generation suffering from either of these conditions or both. It means that in 10, 15 years from now, we will have a whole generation with this condition of having cardiovascular diseases.
Because obesity and diabetes, if not treated, if not suppressed, will lead to cardiovascular diseases. And this is a major challenge. It is for that reason that we started to discuss with the ministers our proposal for an EU Plan on Cardiovascular Health and how to make it differently. Because yes, we have very strong public health policies, but we have not been able to influence the personal choices made by the people.
Personal choices meaning that, as the minister also said, that they eat maybe healthier, that maybe they can live without smoking. So I think we need to do things differently. And that means that we need to have better prevention. We need to have personalized medicine. We have to have personalized prevention strategies. But for this, we need to work and provide this choice for the people and bring it to them directly.
And in that, we agreed that new technologies that are just around the corner, based on data, based on artificial intelligence, based on new technologies like gene technologies, we can provide this choice for the people of Europe.
And finally, we have also discussed the mental health of young people in the cyber age. If you look at the political program of this Commission, this is again another top priority that we need to address. We have listened to the representative of the WHO, the European director, Mr. Kluge, who explained the basics of this. Meaning that our young generation is affected directly and in very high numbers by cyber bullying, by spending more time before screens than is healthy.
For example, over 22 percent of the young generation spends on average every day four hours before screens. We’re talking about kids going to school, spending four hours before screens and playing online or going online. The level of cyber aggression against the young generation has doubled in the last 10 years.
So we have to do much more to avoid that. And I think we have agreed today that we need to protect the young generation against this and that we need also to be much more forthcoming in our actions. And I do hope that the Danish presidency will take over this initiative of the Polish one, because we need to do more.
And for that, it’s not enough just to spend on programs. We need the stakeholders to be around the table. We need the operators of these platforms to help us to eradicate this, to fight this, because otherwise we run the risk that we will lose a whole generation to mental health.
Thank you.
Source – EU Commission