27 September, Bad Hofgastein, Austria – The primary forum to debate all things health policy for nearly 20 years, the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) - 28-30 September - opens tomorrow. This year’s theme is “Demographics and Diversity in Europe – New Solutions for Health”, with key input from European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab, and Nobel Laureate and Professor of Economics Paul Krugman.

Over the course of the 3-day conference, over 500 experts will debate the health and social challenges and opportunities associated with demographic change in Europe.

“Ageing populations and migration do not need to spell out disaster for European health systems. Gastein provides the right setting to discuss opportunities and share on the ground experiences. This year we look forward to sessions on making prevention and care fit for the future”, says Helmut Brand, European Health Forum Gastein President and Professor of European Public Health at Maastricht University.

The WHO Regional Office for Europe, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the European Commission will present perspectives from their organisations on ageing and migration. The conference also welcomes ministries of health from across Europe, including host Austria and trio Presidencies of the European Council - the Netherlands, Slovakia and Malta - to outline the future of European cooperation in health.

“The strength of the Forum is that by bringing together representatives from different sectors and European institutions, we create the right conditions for testing future policies. Viable solutions will only be found by challenging ourselves to think out of the box. The conference will open our eyes to the opportunities of demographic change in many different ways, be it by looking at the silver economy, with sessions on migration, or by discussions on the state of health and welfare in Europe post-Brexit,” says Dorli Kahr-Gottlieb, Secretary General of the EHFG.