Council Conclusions of 2 December 2003 on healthy lifestyles: education, information and communication
Date: 2003-12-02
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: disease prevention, exchange of information, information, public awareness campaign, public health

27.1.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 22/1

I

(Information)

COUNCIL

COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS

of 2 December 2003

on healthy lifestyles: education, information and communication

(2004/C 22/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

1. RECALLS that one of the objectives of the programme of
action in the
field of public health
Community
(2003-2008)
is to promote health and prevent disease
through addressing health determinants across all policies
and activities, in particular by preparing and implementing
strategies and measures, including those related to public
awareness, on life-style related health determinants;

2. RECALLS a series of measures and pronouncements adopted
by the Community which support healthy lifestyles, for
tobacco control and alcohol
example in the fields of
harm reduction and of nutrition,
its
attachment to the objectives pursued therein;

and reiterates

to disease burden.

in the Member States

3. RECOGNISES the major and growing contribution of
Improving the
unhealthy lifestyles
the population is therefore a major
health status of
and the Acceding
objective
Countries. Not only could healthier lifestyles result
in
better health and reduction of disease and injuries, but
in an environment of increasing health care costs, better
prevention is an excellent investment and a very cost-
effective approach;

4. UNDERLINES that a policy focus on lifestyles would be
more effective in the long term when supported by simul-
taneous emphasis on the creation of healthy environments
and on the availability of healthy choices in domains
outside the public health sector. Areas with a major
influence on people's health include social security, avail-
ability of and conditions for work, housing, physical
environment and healthy nutrition;

5. RECOGNISES that initiatives to improve the health status of
the
the population should take into particular account
inequalities by
need to reduce economic and social
ensuring that all activities with the aim of
influencing
life styles take into account those economic and social
groups which are at particular risk;

6. TAKES NOTE of the results of the questionnaire survey
carried out by the Italian Presidency on health policies,
lifestyles and public communication in Europe which
show, inter alia, the commitment of Member States and

Acceding Countries to promoting healthy lifestyles, and a
considerable
for
similarity in their overall
increasing public information and awareness in spite of
the different approaches and priorities adopted in a
number of programmes;

strategies

7. WELCOMES the conclusions and recommendations of the
Conference on ‘Healthy Lifestyles: Education, Information
and Communication’,
jointly organised by the Italian
Presidency and the European Commission in Milan from
3 to 4 September 2003;

8. NOTES in particular the conclusions of

the Conference
regarding the impact of lifestyles on health, the need for
a comprehensive approach, including enabling, to healthy
lifestyles and the importance of
lifestyles monitoring,
evaluation and impact assessment;

9. STRESSES the essential roles of education (particularly of
children at school),
in
the context of wider policies, in the critical task of moti-
vating and, indeed, enabling and helping citizens to adopt
more healthy lifestyles;

information and communication,

10. HIGHLIGHTS the importance of an integrated setting-
in schools and work-

oriented approach (for example,
places) for promoting healthy lifestyles;

11. RECOGNISES that it is necessary to ensure the involvement
of all stakeholders in building up a ‘social awareness’ of the
importance of healthy lifestyles, particularly with respect
to children and other groups at risk, and in promoting
positive role models and counteracting misleading forms
of advertising and marketing, which could encourage an
unhealthy lifestyle;

such as

12. STRESSES the importance of strengthening links between
efforts to adopt healthy lifestyles and other Community
policies,
the social, environment, agriculture,
transport, and product taxation areas. On the occasion
of the adoption of new or revised Community legislation
with a health impact (for example, in the fields of tobacco,
food safety and labelling, health claims, sales promotion,
Television Without Frontiers, etc.), synergies could be
sought with healthy lifestyles;

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Official Journal of the European Union

27.1.2004

— considering, on the basis of advice from the topic-
specific groups within the Programme, how best to:

— apply experience gained in combating tobacco
consumption (such as experience to be derived
from the evaluation of
the tobacco-free Europe
campaign)
to other areas (for example, obesity
and alcohol harm reduction);

— use commonly developed and validated messages in
European, national and regional campaigns in a
consistent way to maximise impact in a manner
consistent with other initiatives at European or
world level;

Food

— work with the EU Health Portal and Community
the
agencies such as the Lisbon Drugs Agency,
European
the
European Medicines Evaluation Agency to support
the exchange of information and improve visibility
for
the process of encouraging the choice of
healthy lifestyles;

Safety Authority

and

— associate the WHO and other concerned inter-
national organisations fully with this process;

— encouraging manufacturers

relevant
commercial enterprises to contribute, where appro-
to the efforts to promote healthy lifestyles
priate,
through their production, marketing
and other
related activities.

other

and

INVITES the Member States to share information with the
Commission, international organisations such as the WHO
and non-governmental groups, on long-term planning and
co-ordination of activities and interventions with a view to
identifying and exploiting synergies, facilitating planning
of scientific advice and making the best possible use of
available resources;

17.

INVITES the Commission, on the basis of the development
of this process and of the concrete experience gained in
this field, to consider how best to facilitate Member States'
continuing commitment to the process of promoting and
enabling healthy lifestyles in a measurable way.

13. WELCOMES the Commission's recent decision to establish a
Working Group on Healthy Lifestyles which will, with the
participation of Member State experts, contribute to
improving the collection and diffusion of data, information
and knowledge relating to that theme;

14. WELCOMES the Commission's commitment

to continue
and reinforce its ongoing work under the Health Deter-
minants' strand of the programme of Community action in
the field of public health to ensure that there is effective
overall
including
gathering available best practice, developing evaluation
tools, and advising the Member States;

co-ordination of

activities,

relevant

15.

INVITES the European Commission and Member States to
develop and periodically update, especially within the
framework of the programme of Community action in
the field of public health, a plan on the following
initiatives to promote healthy lifestyles:

— contributing to promoting in a positive manner the
adoption by citizens of healthy lifestyles by setting
up a series of actions based on research-derived
and involving
evidence of
Member States,
international organisations and other
stakeholders;

interventions

effective

— determining appropriate messages to be conveyed to
the public, health professionals, policy-makers and
other
effective
communication of those messages;

and improving

stakeholders,

the

— strengthening the monitoring on the impact of health
determinants, and producing timely and reliable data
on a comparable basis;

16.

— mobilising certain instruments of

the Programme
through the groups and networks already in place or
to be created (1). These could be complemented by
contributions from relevant stakeholders, such as the
scientific and medical community, general practi-
and other
tioners, pharmacists, nurses,
represen-
frontline health interventionists, patients'
tatives,
and
communication specialists; and

and leisure

educational

dentists

sectors

the

(1) e.g. DG SANCO Alcohol working group, Network on Nutrition and
the Community Health Forum, Eurohealthnet,
Physical Activity,
DAFNE, workplace health promotion network,
the Health
Promoting Schools Network and the Network of Competent Auth-
orities in Health Information.