Debate: A systematic EU approach to chronic kidney disease
Date: THURSDAY, 10 MARCH 2022
Speaker: Stella Kyriakides
Language: EN

As a Commission, we have not taken our eye off non-communicable diseases, while, of course, we have been fighting the pandemic together. On the contrary, I would say our efforts have been to help Member States deal with non-communicable diseases even more effectively. We provide support to Member States in their work to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and World Health Organization targets. This goes specifically for SDG Target 3.4, where the international community has subscribed to the goal to reduce premature mortality from non—communicable diseases by one third by 2030. We all know that this can only be done through prevention and treatment and by identifying and sharing best practices at both national and EU level. To achieve this, we have a number of tools at our disposal. We recently launched a new EU initiative on non-communicable diseases called Healthier Together to address the leading causes of avoidable premature death. Healthier Together focuses on health promotion and prevention. At the same time, it supports improvements in every stage of a patient’s life, from screening and early diagnosis to early detection, treatment management and, of course, all important quality of life, along with improving knowledge and data availability. The priority strands of the initiative include cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, mental health and neurological disorders. These are the leading causes of avoidable premature death, not including cancer. As you know, diabetes and high blood pressure are among the main risk factors for chronic kidney disease. By working on these strands, we will also have a positive impact on kidney disease. The priorities and actions of this initiative will continuously be discussed with Member States and with stakeholders via the EU Health Policy Platform, and I will be very happy to be able to share with the European Parliament all progress made on these efforts.  We are all aware that this House has also made a priority Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. This is a comprehensive plan, it is an ambitious plan and it foresees that we tackle health determinants such as tobacco use, nutrition, physical activity and alcohol. This will also help other non—communicable diseases like chronic kidney disease by addressing common risk factors.  Last but not least, we have our new EU4Health Programme. I will never stop thanking all the Members of this Parliament for their vocal support for that programme, which has given the EU4Health the resources to make it a real game-changer and bring about what I would say is a paradigm shift towards the stronger European health union that we’re all working together to build. This means we can support networks for knowledge-sharing and mutual learning, we can support capacity-building actions and strengthen strategic planning, and Member States will have more opportunities to exchange best practices. Indeed, a call under the 2022 EU4Health Programme for collecting and implementing evidence—based practices for non-communicable diseases specifically refers to chronic kidney disease.  The EU has funded many research actions under the Horizon 2020 programme. We have 40 projects directly addressing chronic kidney disease worth EUR 64 million and 24 projects related to kidney transplantation amounting to EUR 47 million. In the Horizon 2021 work programme our new flagship, the European Innovation Council, includes a call for medical technology and devices that includes portable dialysis.  So we are working strongly. We are working and supporting Member States in sharing best practices for organ donation and transplantation, where we all know that there are many challenges faced. We are working on digital transplant registries for the kidney transplant recipients and living kidney donors to be able to bring all the data together at EU level and to improve transplantation outcomes.  In ending, honourable Members, we fully appreciate the importance of research and of pooling knowledge, but more than that, we need to bring all this together to increase the quality of life and to increase the life expectancy of those living with chronic kidney disease. That’s why our support in this crucial area will not only continue, but I have personally committed to this to the patient organisations themselves. I look forward now to hearing your views on this very important matter.