On this year’s World Heart Day, nearly 300 participants came together online for a landmark EU Cardiovascular Health Plan stakeholder webinar, underscoring both the urgency and momentum for coordinated European action. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of death in Europe, claiming over 1.7 million lives each year and costing the EU about €280 billion annually.
The webinar’s timing could not have been more symbolic – and more practical. The European Commission is preparing the first-ever EU Cardiovascular Health Plan (CVH Plan), aiming to emulate the success of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan with a comprehensive approach spanning prevention, early detection and screening, treatment, care, and rehabilitation – while also tackling cross-cutting priorities like research and innovation, digital health and AI, and health inequalities.
In a special video address, Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi highlighted that CVDs remain a “shared European challenge” and that this plan will help Member States coordinate efforts. He stressed that the initiative builds on the EU’s ‘Healthier Together’ programme and will link cardiovascular health with related areas such as diabetes and obesity.
A major focus will be on comprehensive cardiovascular health checks, powered by digital and AI-driven tools, to identify people at risk earlier and offer timely interventions. Várhelyi also underscored the importance of reducing inequalities across Member States and between different population groups.
This was not FH Europe Foundation’s (FHEF) first encounter with the Commissioner. FHEF team, together with Prof. Florian Kronenberg met with him on 18 September in Brussels, ahead of the webinar, to emphasise the importance of integrating inherited lipid disorders into the EU response to cardiovascular diseases.
“By working together, we can improve heart health for everyone,” Commissioner Várhelyi concluded, inviting all stakeholders to help shape and later deliver the plan.
Read more about the meeting with the Commissioner here.
Marianne Takki, representing DG SANTE, presented the European Commission’s current thinking and shared insights from the ‘Call for Evidence’ consultation, which ran from 11 August to 17 September and attracted 677 responses – with a strong 87% coming from EU Member States.
Ms. Takki highlighted that the consultation validated the Commission’s initial priorities:
She also stressed that health inequalities remain a core concern, with cardiovascular mortality rates up to seven times higher in some Member States. Ten countries already have national cardiovascular health plans, but more support is needed to close the gaps.
Research and innovation will play a crucial role in bridging knowledge gaps and translating findings into practice. EU investment in CVD-related research through Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe has already reached €1.4 billion, with new opportunities on the horizon to address links between nutrition and cardiovascular health, as well as innovative care models.
Find the slides official slides from the webinar here.
The consultation and the webinar itself demonstrated how vibrant and committed the CVD stakeholder community is. Contributions came from patient organisations, clinicians, researchers, industry, and advocacy groups, all calling for bold and practical solutions.
Magdalena Daccord, CEO of FH Europe Foundation (FHEF), took the floor to represent the 90 million citizens in the European Union affected by inherited lipid disorders and related conditions. She emphasised the need to ensure that familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), elevated lipoprotein (a) [Lp(a)], homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (HoFH), familial chylomicronaemia syndrome (FCS) and other inherited lipid disorders are explicitly addressed in the plan – both as a genetic risk factor for early-onset CVD and as a field where early screening and detection saves lives. She also raised the importance of tacking genetic discrimination when implementing early screening and detection.
FHEF, together with consortia PERFECTO FH, PerMed FH, FH_EARLY, and the Lp(a) International Taskforce as well as many FHEF Network patient organisations and individual patients, young ambassadors and experts also provided extensive feedback during the public consultations, ensuring that the voices of patients and their families were heard loud and clear.
Read the FHEF Response to the EC Consultation on CVH Plan for Europe_2025 here.
Many other stakeholders echoed complementary priorities:
The EU Cardiovascular Health Plan is expected to be finalised by the end of the year, informed by the rich input gathered through consultations and this webinar. The Commission has committed to working closely with Member States, stakeholders, and patients to ensure that the plan is comprehensive, equitable, and actionable.
For FHEF, the webinar marked another milestone in ongoing advocacy to ensure that inherited lipid disorders and early screening combined with family-based screening are fully integrated into the EU response to cardiovascular health challenges.
As the world marked World Heart Day, this discussion served as a powerful reminder that better heart health is not just a medical imperative – it is a societal commitment.
FH Europe Foundation remains dedicated to ensuring that the patient voice continues to guide this journey – from Brussels to every community across Europe and beyond.
Prepared by
Kitti Almer,
FHEF Policy and Advocacy Manager
Additional resources: