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According to the European Commission, the manufacturing and trade in firearms, their essential components and ammunition employs around 150 000 people in the EU. Following the terrorist attacks in the EU of the last decade, the EU decided to update its legislation on civilian firearms. In 2020, the Commission adopted the 2020-2025 action plan on firearms trafficking to help curb illegal flows of firearms, and ammunition, while also strengthening the legal market. The publication of Directive (EU) ...

World Obesity Day – marked every year on 4 March – is a World Obesity Federation initiative supporting practical solutions to help reverse obesity. A person is considered overweight by the World Health Organization if he or she has a body mass index (BMI) – calculated by dividing body weight by the square of height – equal to or greater than 25. Obesity is the condition of severe overweight where a person has a BMI equal to or greater than 30. Worryingly, obesity acts as a gateway to a range of diseases ...

European countries have been experiencing medicine shortages due to disruptions in the supply chain. Reshoring the productions of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) is considered as an approach to secure the supply. This study informs about the state-of-play of API production in the European Union, including reshoring initiatives. Studying potential benefits and challenges of local API production and the processes of reshoring, the document explores measures to facilitate the production of ...

This study provides a mapping of funds contributed by different actors for the R&D and the expansion of the production capacity of COVID-19 vaccines, with a focus on those authorised in the EU. Nine vaccines are examined. It is found that governments, mainly the US (with some not-for-profit entities) decisively supported corporate investments, either for R&D, manufacturing, or both, by nearly EUR 9 billion, i.e. on average EUR one billion of grants per vaccine, with, however, vast variance across ...

This study was drawn up to support the work of the European Parliament's Special Committee on the COVID 19 pandemic. It examines the European Union's public health response to the COVID 19 pandemic across the following five pillars: (1) the EU vaccines strategy and national vaccination strategies; (2) independent scientific evidence on vaccine effectiveness; (3) the EU public health response to COVID 19, addressing the EU framework for crisis response; (4) the EU's prevention and preparedness efforts ...

On 11 November 2020, the European Commission put forward a proposal for a regulation on serious cross-border threats to health. In the light of lessons learned from the coronavirus crisis, it aimed to strengthen the EU's health security by revising Decision 1082/2013/EU (the 'Cross-Border Health Threats Decision'). The proposal was presented in a package that also included proposals to strengthen the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) ...

Cancer can affect everyone, regardless of age, gender or social status and puts immense pressure on European health systems. Fighting cancer is one of the priorities of the European Health Union. Delivering better long-term care for patients living with cancer also means reducing significant disparities, both between and within Member States. World Cancer Day, marked every year on 4 February, reminds us that cancer is a huge health threat to our society.

On 30 November 2022, 12 years after the adoption of the first strategy on the EU's role in global health in 2010, the European Commission unveiled the EU global health strategy with the overarching goal of improving global health security and ensuring better health for all. The document takes stock of lessons learnt from the pandemic and guides EU action in an evolving landscape of threats and opportunities, including towards reasserting responsibility for attainment of the United Nations Sustainable ...

The evolution of HIV from a fatal to a long-term condition poses challenges for people living with HIV and for health and social care systems across the EU. This paper aims to help Members of the European Parliament and other interested stakeholders to obtain a better picture of the current situation in relation to HIV among people living with HIV in the EU, HIV-related stigma and issues which impact on health-related quality of life for people living with HIV.

The Monthly Highlights publication provides an overview, at a glance, of the on-going work of the policy departments, including a selection of the latest and forthcoming publications, and a list of future events.