MEPs Support EU Heart Health Strategy, but Critics Warn of Overlooking Core Disease Causes

The European Parliament’s Public Health Committee has adopted its response to the EU’s cardiovascular health plan, backing prevention, early detection, and action against risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

The report, approved on June 24 by 38 votes to two, with one abstention, responds to the European Commission’s Safe Hearts Plan, unveiled in December 2025. It calls for a coordinated EU approach to preventing cardiovascular disease, including related conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and obesity.

Rapporteur Romana Jerković, an S&D MEP from Croatia, said: “For too long, Europe has focused on paying for the consequences of cardiovascular disease instead of addressing its causes. This report marks a shift towards prevention. It calls for tougher and more progressive action on the commercial drivers of poor health, from the marketing of novel nicotine products to children to the lack of transparency around alcohol and unhealthy foods. If we are serious about reducing Europe’s biggest killer, we need public health policies driven by evidence, not by commercial interests.”

Cardiovascular disease remains Europe’s biggest killer, and policymakers increasingly acknowledge that health systems cannot simply pay for the consequences after disease has taken hold. But the vote has also sharpened debate over whether the EU is still misdiagnosing the problem.

In a June 17 VoxBox interview, Czech MEP Ondřej Dostál argued that Brussels focuses too heavily on political intervention and taxation, while failing to confront the lifestyle, diet, and childhood health factors driving Europe’s disease burden. Dostál said the EU should not act as a “good mother” telling citizens what to consume, but should support member states, doctors, families, schools, and local health systems.

His comments point to the central tension in the EU’s health strategy. The SANT Committee report calls for action on tobacco, nicotine products, harmful alcohol consumption, healthy diets, physical activity, front-of-pack nutrition labelling, ultra-processed