{"id":442070,"date":"2025-12-16T18:38:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T17:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/12\/16\/lunione-presenta-il-piano-cuori-sicuri-obiettivo-combattere-le-malattie-cardiovascolari\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T19:13:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T18:13:21","slug":"the-eu-presents-its-safe-hearts-plan-the-goal-is-to-combat-cardiovascular-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/12\/16\/the-eu-presents-its-safe-hearts-plan-the-goal-is-to-combat-cardiovascular-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU presents its “Safe Hearts” plan: the goal is to combat cardiovascular disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Cardiovascular disease<\/strong> is the leading cause of death in the EU, affecting some 62 million people<\/strong> and causing the death of 1.7 million<\/strong> Europeans each year. The Union must do more to combat this phenomenon, as recognised by the European Commissioner for Health, Oliv\u00e9r V\u00e1rhelyi<\/strong>: “30 per cent of young Europeans are obese, and 20 per cent are pre-diabetic due to their physical condition. By 2050, such sufferers will double.”<\/p>\n

To turn the tide and improve prevention and treatment, the European Commission has decided to present a health package dedicated solely to cardiovascular diseases<\/strong>. The project is part of a broader incentive effort by the EU body, which also includes aid for research in biotechnology<\/strong> and regulatory simplification<\/strong> in the field of food safety.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi (source: European Parliament)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The “Safe Hearts” plan<\/h3>\n

The plan, with the unambiguous “Safe Hearts<\/strong>” name, aims to reduce deaths by 25 per cent<\/strong> by 2035, raise public awareness, and focus on prevention. To achieve this, V\u00e1rhelyi recalls, will require “the use of artificial intelligence<\/strong>, used in conjunction with the latest technologies to make clinical trials more efficient.” With this in mind, the Commission has proposed a new European biotechnology law<\/strong> to simplify and speed up the research process. “We already know that the proposals we will present will take about two years to become law and have an effect on the population,” the commissioner added.<\/p>\n

The pillar is prevention <\/h3>\n

Back to the “Safe Hearts” plan, prevention is the weapon the Commission has chosen as the “pillar” to intensify action against cardiovascular diseases. The ageing population is burdening national healthcare systems, making it difficult to ensure efficient treatment for all. For this reason, the Berlaymont Palace’s commitment is to support the Member States in developing national plans<\/strong> to combat<\/span> cardiovascular diseases. The initiatives against tobacco consumption are also reconfirmed<\/strong>: as already announced, the executive body is pushing for
\nharmonised rates<\/a> at the European level, including for smokeless products. Among the main causes of cardiovascular disease are also over-processed foods<\/strong>, for which the European institution pledges to “examine appropriate instruments, including possible financial actions.”<\/p>\n

European Integration<\/h3>\n

To make all these ambitions a reality, greater integration of health systems<\/b> is needed, such as a European network of cardiovascular health centres<\/b> and a control panel on health inequalities.<\/b> However, the \u20ac2.3 billion<\/strong> investment so far put in place by European bodies seems insufficient, and the Commissioner himself has confirmed an increase. The specific prevention initiatives complement the financial support provided by the EIB<\/b><\/a> to the biotech sector and the omnibus package on food and feed announced by the Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Valdis Dombrovskis<\/b>. The Union is therefore taking action, but V\u00e1rhelyi warned that, for the effects to become concrete, “other legislators must support us.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Commission is committed to combating smoking and reducing the sale of ultra-processed food. Alongside the “Safe Hearts” plan, support for biotechnology research and simplification of food safety regulations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7891,"featured_media":276770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30961],"tags":[26640,32806,26620],"class_list":["post-442070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-salute-en","tag-health","tag-malattie-cardiovascolari","tag-oliver-varhelyi-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7891"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442071,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442070\/revisions\/442071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}