Informal Meeting of EU Health Ministers in Sofia

Informal meeting of EU health ministers takes place on 23 April in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia.

The agenda includes a discussion on healthy nutrition for children and the effectiveness and accessibility of medicinal products.

A healthy diet for children is one of the topics for which a common policy will be sought. At a meeting a month ago about healthy nutrition, Bulgaria was mentioned as a good example of healthy nutrition for children with public procurement in schools and kindergartens, with the school fruit programme.

Kiril Ananiev, Bulgaria’s Minister of Health, said that special focus will be placed on the impact of environment, food supply and marketing. In this spirit, we will also talk about the common agricultural policy, which can contribute to the healthy diet of children. Of course, we will also pay attention to the role of science, which has the potential to contribute to the goals and priorities of health care, he said.

Vytenis Andriukaitis, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety said that today was important to hear all members specifically on the future of health policies at European level over the next seven years to see how countries can act together in healthcare. I am pleased that Bulgaria has opened this discussion within its presidency. Congratulations, he added.

The informal meeting will also discuss the drug policy, in particular, the EC proposal for joint European Health Technology Assessment in their clinical effectiveness trials. Instead of making 28 assessments in different countries. One assessment should be done. The goal is to assess the effectiveness of medicines more quickly, to introduce them more quickly, to reduce inequalities between countries.

Heated discussion on the topic is expected because some countries are opposed to such centralisation.

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