The European Commission launched a consultation on Tuesday 4 February, World Cancer Day, to prepare its future plan to fight this disease which causes one in four deaths in Europe. On the one hand, it seeks the opinion of the population, through a public consultation (12 weeks), and on the other hand, it asks stakeholders about the roadmap it has previously drawn up (4 weeks).
On the occasion of a launch conference at the European Parliament, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, each gave a rousing speech showing their commitment. Both shared their personal experiences, Ms von der Leyen talking about the death of her sister at the age of 11 from vestibular sarcoma, when she herself was only 13, and Stella Kyriakides talking about the death of her mother and her breast cancer, from which she has recovered.
“Today is about turning people into policy”, said the Health Commissioner. She stressed that the future plan must address all stages of the disease, from prevention to diagnosis, life after illness, palliative care, research and innovation. “To do this, we need to identify the shortcomings and that is why we are launching a consultation”, she continued, referring to possible measures such as tobacco control, carcinogens in the workplace, air, water or environmental pollution, etc.
According to the Commission’s work programme, the future European plan against cancer will be presented in the fourth quarter of 2020.
However, there was a slight technical problem with the launch of the double consultation, since at the time this edition was completed, only the one on the roadmap was available.
See: https://bit.ly/36WCqdW (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)