Cross-border cooperation will permeate the informal meeting of European health ministers in Valletta, Malta, on Monday 20 March. Tackling childhood obesity and HIV/AIDS are also on the agenda.
The 28 ministers will discuss priority areas for enhanced voluntary cross-border collaboration in the procurement of innovative health technologies for rare diseases.
“Sustaining high quality health systems has however become a key challenge for many policy makers seeking to reconcile fiscal sustainability targets with the provision of innovative and highly specialised technologies and services to our citizens”, states the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU which is organising the meeting.
Discussion will also be held on cross-border collaboration in training in highly specialised health services and, more particularly, structured mobility for the training of medical specialists and appropriate mechanisms that will facilitate joint operations.
Among the other items on the agenda of the ministerial meeting is halting the rise in childhood obesity which results in a myriad of complications, such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease and even increased risk of cancer. Ministers will also discuss how the EU can scale up its response to HIV. Every year about 30,000 people are newly diagnosed with HIV in the EU/EEA, and almost another 110,000 people are known to be infected in the broader European region.
The informal meeting will also provide ministers with the opportunity to define the broad thrust of the new health programme on these various issues. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)