On Thursday October 17th, the EU Health Policy Platform annual meeting took place in Brussels. During the morning session, the EU Health Awards were presented by the European Commissioner for Health, Vytenis Andriukaitis. The winners in the categories of Cities, NGOs and School received a prize of EUR 100 000 for their excellent work in preventing and reducing obesity in children and young people. They were also encouraged to continue the good work they have done so far in helping youngsters to embrace healthy lifestyles.
During the award ceremony, Commissioner Andriukaitis stressed the importance of promoting and leading a healthy lifestyle. Healthy lifestyles promotion is a key part of disease prevention and will help to make the financing of health systems in the EU more sustainable in the long term. In order to effectively promote healthy lifestyles, cross-sectoral collaboration will be of the essence. One stellar example of such cross-sectoral collaboration is the Tartu Call for a healthy lifestyle, which was launched in 2017 by Commissioner Andriukaitis for Health, Commissioner Navracsics for sport and Commissioner Hogan for agriculture.
EuropeActive congratulates the winners of the EU Health Awards on the exceptional work that they are doing in the fight against obesity and we encourage the European Commission to continue the path of cross-sectoral collaboration on the promotion of healthy lifestyles and the ‘Tartu Call’.