April maintained strong momentum across our community, with growing visibility for HoFH following the successful PERFECTO closing event.
Looking ahead, key opportunities—from EU policy engagement to upcoming webinars and the EAS Congress—signal a dynamic period focused on collaboration, awareness, and impact.
Catch up on the key highlights from the April 2026 edition of Heart Beat:
The European Commission has launched a new Call for Evidence on health checks for cardiovascular diseases: an EU approach to early detection and screening.
This is more than just another EU initiative. It is a critical moment for our community to ensure that early screening and detection of cardiovascular risk factors, particularly inherited lipid disorders are systematically and strategically embedded in public health policy and cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention across Member States. This is something our community has been advocating for over a decade.
Across Europe, millions of people are living with inherited lipid disorders that significantly increase their risk of early heart attacks, strokes, and a broader spectrum of cardiovascular diseases, often without knowing it. CVDs remains Europe’s number one killer, claiming 1.7 million lives every year. Yet much of this burden is avoidable. An estimated 90 million people in the EU live with one or more inherited lipid disorders that place them at high risk of premature cardiovascular events, many of them undiagnosed.
Conditions such as familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), its severe form homozygous FH (HoFH), elevated lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], and rare disorders like familial chylomicronaemia syndrome (FCS) are present from birth and largely genetically determined. In many cases, they can be identified through simple, accessible tests. And yet, detection remains alarmingly low. Up to 90% of people with FH are not identified. Despite affecting around 1 in 5 individuals, Lp(a) is rarely measured. Rare but severe conditions like HoFH and FCS are often diagnosed only after serious, sometimes life-threatening complications occur. For too many families, the first sign of risk is not a diagnosis, but a heart attack, a stroke, or a medical emergency. This is not due to a lack of science or tools, but a lack of systematic early detection.
This is precisely the gap that Europe now has an opportunity to address.
Key facts: EU Call for Evidence on cardiovascular health checks
The European Commission has launched a Call for Evidence on a forthcoming Council Recommendation on health checks for cardiovascular diseases: an EU approach to early detection and screening.
The consultation led by DG SANTE, opened on 21 April 2026 and will close on 19 May 2026. It forms part of the Safe Hearts Plan. Stakeholders can submit input via the Commission portal: https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/sante/items/933232/en.
What is being proposed?
The initiative aims to strengthen cardiovascular prevention across the EU by supporting Member States in developing more structured and effective health checks. The focus is on identifying risk earlier, before symptoms appear, and ensuring that people at risk are detected and managed in time. This includes improving access to routine checks for key indicators such as blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol, making better use of risk prediction tools and digital technologies, and targeting screening towards populations most at risk. At its core, the proposal recognises a fundamental reality: cardiovascular diseases develop silently, and prevention depends on detecting risk early enough to act.
What needs to be addressed
While this initiative is a major step forward, its impact will depend on how comprehensively “risk” is defined. If health checks focus only on traditional adult risk factors, a significant part of the problem will remain invisible. Inherited lipid disorders are among the most common drivers of premature cardiovascular disease, yet they are still largely absent from routine screening approaches. These conditions do not develop over time—they are present from birth. This requires a different, more proactive approach.
A meaningful EU framework for health checks must ensure that inherited risk is systematically captured. This includes integrating Lp(a) testing at least once in a lifetime, strengthening early detection of FH, including in children, and enabling pathways to identify severe and rare conditions such as HoFH and FCS. Just as importantly, detection must lead to action, through appropriate follow-up, access to treatment, and family-based approaches such as cascade screening that can protect entire generations. This is how Europe can move from reacting to disease to preventing it before it starts.
How to contribute
The Call for Evidence is open until 19 May 2026. Contributions can be submitted through the European Commission’s “Have Your Say” portal using the link above. This phase is designed for concise input (around 4,000 characters), focusing on the problems to be addressed, key actions, and expected impact. Attachments are possible.
A coordinated response and a call to action
FHEF has been preparing a coherent, evidence-based response to this Call for Evidence, building on our advocacy, policy work, and the lived experience of our community. For a few months a collaboration has been ongoing with the European Atherosclerosis Society and many of the consortia incl. PERFECTO FH, FH EARLY, PerMed FH and the diabetes community to link the opportunity of early screening and detection with Type 1 Diabetes.
To support the feedback process, FHEF will host 2 community calls on Monday, May 11, to present the initiative, gather input, and align on key priorities.
Register here:
This is a critical opportunity to shape how cardiovascular diseases are detected and prevented across Europe. We encourage everyone in our community to engage actively, but also strategically. A clear, unified voice will have far greater impact and ensure that inherited lipid disorders are fully recognised in the final recommendation.
Let’s prevent the preventable together!
Joint Statement – Investing in Health for Europe’s Competitiveness, Resilience and Long-Term Growth
Amsterdam, 20 April 2026 - The European cardiovascular health and cancer communities have issued a strong appeal to the EU Heads of State and Government to make health investment a sustained priority ahead of their European Council (EUCO) Summit on 23–24 April.
The joint statement, signed by the European Alliance on Cardiovascular Health (EACH) and the European Cancer Organisation (ECO), calls for health to remain effectively protected and adequately funded within the future European Competitiveness Fund as part of the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028–2034.
Cardiovascular disease and cancer are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the European Union. Together, they are responsible for nine million diagnoses and almost three million deaths each year. Beyond the profound human toll, these conditions cost the EU close to €500 billion annually [1], driving up avoidable healthcare costs, reducing workforce productivity, and adding pressures on social systems.
The time for political action is now
EU citizens have consistently placed public health among their biggest concerns and ranked it at the top of their priorities for the EU budget in the latest Eurobarometer edition [2]. Members of the European Parliament have also given overwhelming support for a dedicated EU health programme within the proposed budget [3]. However, health is not yet treated as the political priority it must be—despite its scale, cost and impact. It is now up to EU Heads of State and Government to translate this ambition into concrete investments and policy commitments.
If Europe is to remain resilient in the face of geopolitical instability, economic pressure, and future health crises and a leader in science and innovation, it must significantly scale up investment in cardiovascular and cancer care and research, two areas representing the highest disease burden and among the most vulnerable to disruption when health systems come under strain.
The joint statement calls on EU Heads of State and Government to:
Funding health is not a cost — it is a strategic investment in Europe’s future.
As the European Parliament lead committee on the Report on the Regulation establishing the European Competitiveness Fund, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) holds a decisive responsibility in safeguarding Europe’s progress, ambition, and global leadership in the fight against cancer.
Against this backdrop, and with the deadline to table amendments set for 6 May, the EU’s cancer and cardiovascular communities urge all members of the ITRE Committee to table targeted amendments, prioritising the following statement:
‘The EU4Health programme has demonstrated its value as a transformative instrument for strengthening public health systems and securing the Union’s strategic autonomy. Recognising that a healthy population and a resilient workforce are fundamental to European competitiveness, health must remain a standalone programme with strong levels of dedicated funding to implement the EU Safe Hearts Plan and sustain the progress of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.’
FH Europe Foundation, Partner of the EACH, stands ready to work with EU institutions and Member States to ensure that Europe’s competitiveness agenda fully reflects the strategic importance of investing in health.
Download the Joint Statement incl. Amendments
References
[1] The close to €500 billion estimation was created by summing the burden of cardiovascular disease and cancer from two sources:
[2] Standard Eurobarometer 104 - Autumn 2025 – On the question QF3ab: ‘And on which of the following would you like EU budget to be spent firstly? Any others?’ The answer: ‘Employment, social affairs and public health was placed on top, maintaining stable support when compared to the previous edition’.
[3] On 4 February 2026, the European Parliament called for the EU to renew its political commitment, funding and coordination to support full implementation of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, with 427 votes in favour, 15 against and 93 abstentions. The call also highlighted the need for a dedicated EU health programme in the next EU’s next long-term budget. More information here.
About EACH
The European Alliance for Cardiovascular Health (EACH) brings together 23 leading European and international organisations to promote cardiovascular health as a policy priority at EU level. The Alliance provides a platform to aggregate knowledge and expertise of key stakeholders active in the field of cardiovascular health, and to advise and guide policymakers. The Alliance calls for greater focus on improving cardiovascular health and reducing the burden cardiovascular disease at European level.
About the European Cancer Organisation
The European Cancer Organisation (ECO) is the largest non-profit, multi-professional federation in the European cancer community. It brings together hundreds of different professional societies and patient groups to advocate for more effective, efficient, and equitable cancer care. More information is available here.
For more information, please contact:
| EACH – Sophie Millar
EACH Secretariat each@escardio.org |
ECO - Alvaro Jimber
ECO Communications Officer alvaro.jimber@europeancancer.org |
March was a month of awareness, collaboration, and forward-looking advocacy across our community. With a strong focus on Lp(a) Awareness Day, policy engagement, and ongoing research initiatives, we continued driving progress toward earlier detection, improved care pathways, and stronger patient voices in FH and rare lipid disorders.
Catch up on the key highlights from the March 2026 edition of Heart Beat: