Faced with an estimated annual cost of over €100 billion and persistent inequalities in access to care, members of European Parliament’s Committee on Public Health (SANT) have called for a substantial budgetary boost for Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.
The draft report on implementing Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, presented by Vlad Vasile-Voiculescu (Renew Europe, Romanian), was generally well received by the committee on Tuesday 14 April (see EUROPE 13840/10).
The rapporteur noted that, every two minutes, a European citizen dies of cancer. Every year, 1.3 million families are affected, and without further action, the number of cases could rise another 25% by 2040. Cancer results in the loss of 1.1 million workers every year, according to the rapporteur.
Vlad Vasile-Voiculescu expressed regret that the plan does not allow the results achieved to be clearly measured: for example, it is impossible to tell a citizen whether a specific screening programme was actually funded through this plan. According to the rapporteur, 40% of cancers could be prevented. He sharply criticised delays in revising the Tobacco Products Directive and argued that prevention messages regarding alcohol remained inadequate. “This is a strategic and political problem, but also a moral one; it is a failure”, he said.
For the next phase, the rapporteur advocates for funding that is strictly conditional upon achieving certain results. He calls for concrete progress in screening and vaccination, a faster transition from research to clinical development, as well as simpler and more secure regulations to encourage innovation, particularly in AI-driven screening.
Polish EPP member Bartosz Arłukowicz was very pessimistic regarding the plan’s implementation, saying that “despite all the discussions, we have not truly put in place a plan worthy of the name”. He stressed the need to guarantee equal access to treatment, fair chances of survival and rapid diagnosis for every patient. He also pointed to shortages in medicines and deplored the lack of funding clearly earmarked for the fight against cancer at European level.
Alessandra Moretti (S&D, Italian) denounced the Commission’s budgetary cuts to health, deeming it unacceptable that “first and second class” citizens still exist in Europe when it comes to cancer.
Ignazio Marino (Greens/EFA, Italian) called for more action on environmental factors, while Sebastian Everding (The Left, German) emphasised lifestyle-related determinants. He pointed out that increased consumption of red meat and processed foods, as well as smoking - particularly among young people - clearly increases the risk of cancer. In his view, a genuine cancer-fighting policy must also involve action on diet, specifically by reducing consumption of products high in fat and sugar. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)