According to Prof Dr Helmut Brand, the new EHFG president, EU actions have contributed much more effectively to health protection in the everyday lives of EU citizens than national policymakers could have. He called for the further development of the EU health mandate established in the Maastricht Agreements, noting that the European Parliament should be given more power to deal with public health topics and the EU should be positioned more strongly in global health issues.
 

4th October 2012, Brussels
by AEGEE-Europe / European Students’ Forum
 

Every second adult in the EU is overweight; double the number of 20 years ago. Experts addressing the European Health Forum Gastein reported on new approaches to tackling obesity, which could reduce the burden of chronic disease and deliver substantial cost savings to struggling European healthcare systems.

Bad Hofgastein, 5 October 2012 – Tackling obesity could dramatically cut the burden on public budgets across Europe, experts claimed today at the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG).

Economic crises and recessions affect health systems in entirely different ways. In less-developed countries they represent a severe threat to any progress that has been achieved. But in industrialised societies they can prove to be a motor for breaking up old, out-dated, structures and be the catalyst for renewal, experts told the European Health Forum Gastein. But they argued that sustainable reforms depended on their shape and direction being worked out in advance.

Brussels, 4 October 2012: The European Partnership for Energy and the Environment (EPEE), representing the heating and cooling industry in Europe, estimates that a phase-down of F-Gases in the EU will reduce the direct climate impact of refrigerants by up to 65% in 2030.