Health-EU Newsletter 200 - Focus

200th edition of the Health-EU newsletter: much has changed since its 2007 launch, but not its purpose!

by Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety

I am proud to write the editorial for this landmark edition of the Health-EU newsletter. Ten years ago, the honour of writing the very first editorial went to the EU Commissioner of Health at that time, Markos Kyprianou, who wrote about how the newsletter was launched in response to the public's increasing use of the internet.

We take the internet almost for granted today, but according to Eurostat, it was only in 2007 that a threshold was broken and households in the EU with internet access became the majority, at 55%. That was also the year the Health-EU newsletter was launched to meet the needs of this growing population who were going online for news and information.

Today, 79% of the EU population uses the internet regularly; most of us every day. The number of subscribers to the Health-EU newsletter has kept pace with this growth, growing from just a few hundred in 2007 to nearly 20,000 regular readers today, including policy makers, health professionals, non-governmental organisations, international organisations, EU Agencies, Member States authorities, academia, scientists, industry and the general public. The newsletter is also now published in 23 EU languages.

Over the years, the newsletter has brought attention to priority EU health issues, like antimicrobial resistance, cancer, and the importance of vaccination, a healthy diet and adequate physical activity. It has celebrated victories, such as the recent establishment of the European Reference Networks (ERNs) to pool expertise for patients with rare diseases and the launch of the new antimicrobial resistance Action Plan; it has encouraged innovation in health such as eHealth and Health Technology Assessment and addressed health threats including Ebola and the Zika virus. The newsletter has also given a voice to Member States, EU Agencies, patient groups, NGOs and others as guest editorialists and contributors. It regularly reports on Health Programme projects, and twice a year, focuses exclusively on the activities of the European Commission's Scientific Committees.

I look back with pride and gratitude at the hard work and accomplishments covered in 200 editions of this newsletter – every issue was packed with tangible evidence of European Commission's commitment to protecting and improving the health and wellbeing of every EU citizen. And it humbles me to know that a single news item can represent years of hard work behind the scenes – like all the work that went into the Tobacco Products Directive, for example.

But although so much has been accomplished and so much has changed since 2007, the purpose for which the Health-EU newsletter was created remains the same – to serve you, our readers. I'd like to encourage you to send in relevant EU and Member State news, events and other items for further dissemination by contacting SANTE-WEB-HEALTH-EUec [dot] europa [dot] eu (SANTE-WEB-HEALTH-EU[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu), and to share the newsletter with others who might be interested in public health.

Might be interested in public health? Shouldn't we all be interested in safeguarding our most precious treasure? Without good health, our passion for life diminishes and we feel unable to make the kind of contribution we want to make at home or at work. So here's to keeping informed and being pro-active, to sharing news about what's being done to protect and promote good health. And here's to another ten years of the Health-EU newsletter!

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