European Health Care News - January 2026

The European Commission presented the Union plan to address all potential cross-border health hazards and crises. The plan outlines the health crisis governance framework of the European Union (EU) and provides practical tools for coordinating action at EU level across all phases of the crisis management cycle. This living document will be regularly tested and updated (EN/FR/NL).

The Communication titled the ‘Safe Hearts Plan’ presents the EU strategic response to cardiovascular diseases and is centred on three pillars: prevention, early detection and screening, treatment and care. The plan is supported by three cross-cutting themes on digital innovation, research and knowledge, and tackling inequalities (EN, EN/FR).

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published ‘The State of Cardiovascular Health in the European Union’, a report funded by the European Commission under the EU4Health programme. It provides a comprehensive assessment of cardiovascular health trends, including risk factors, multimorbidity, health and health care pathways and outcomes across the EU. It also maps existing policies, as well as the main challenges and opportunities for future action at both Member State and EU level (EN).

The reports are part of the ‘State of Health in the EU’ cycle, a partnership between the European Commission, the OECD and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, funded by the EU4Health Programme. The Country Health Profiles cover the latest developments in health trends and health systems across all EU countries, Iceland and Norway. The synthesis report identifies four critical areas for improvement: preventing non-communicable diseases, accelerating the digital health transformation, strengthening primary care, and promoting affordable access to pharmaceuticals and innovation (EN/FR).

The European Commission has compiled the data regularly reported by the 24 thematic European Reference Networks (ERN), which cover main clusters of rare, complex and low-prevalence diseases. ERN is a flagship activity on rare diseases, which was launched in 2017 under the Directive on Patients’ Rights in Cross-Border Healthcare. This first monitoring report presents data per ERN and provides a country profile of each Member State and Norway (EN).

The feasibility study published by the European Commission follows the Council Recommendation on stepping up EU actions to combat antimicrobial resistance in a One Health approach, which was adopted in 2023 and invited Member States to develop integrated surveillance systems for antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial consumption. The study examines the design, barriers and enablers of integrated surveillance systems, proposing solutions to overcome barriers and support the development of such systems at national level. The final report is accompanied by 6 country case studies, including one on Belgium (EN).

The European Parliamentary Research Service published a European implementation assessment, to inform the work being done by the European Parliament’s Committee on Public Health, on Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. The analysis covers the period between 2021 and 2024, focussing on: gaps and delays in implementation; the impact on cancer inequalities; lessons learned and their applicability to future EU initiatives on non-communicable diseases (EN).

The European Commission presented the European Biotech Act, a regulation aiming to strengthen the EU biotechnology and biomanufacturing sectors. The measures focus on financial support for biotech companies, incentives for them to conduct research and development within the EU, and simplified rules that accelerate procedures and reduce burdens. The Act is expected to build a world-leading health biotech industry (EN/FR).

The European Commission proposed to revise EU rules on medical devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices, with the aim to simplify and reduce the burden on this sector. The reform is expected to enable faster access to safe and innovative devices and to strengthen the EU’s competitiveness in this field. It will also strengthen the coordinating and monitoring role of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) (EN/FR).

The European Commission adopted the sixth and last implementing regulation aiming to ensure the proper application of the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Regulation. It establishes rules for joint clinical assessment of medical devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices (EN).

The Council of the EU and the European Parliament have reached an agreement on a new legislative framework for pharmaceuticals. The ‘pharma package’ aims to ensure fair access to safe, effective and affordable medicines across the EU, while boosting the competitiveness of the pharmaceutical industry (EN/FR/NL).

The Apply AI Strategy sets out how to speed up the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in Europe’s key industries and the public sector, including health and pharmaceuticals. The communication from the European Commission contains three sections: sectoral flagships; support measures to tackle cross-cutting challenges to AI development and adoption; and a new governance system including the Apply AI Alliance and an AI Observatory (EN, EN/FR/NL).

An example of a flagship initiative in health care is COMPASS-AI. This promotes responsible and effective integration of AI in clinical settings and focuses on cancer care and health care in remote areas (EN).

The European Commission launched the European AI in Science Strategy, which aims to harness the potential of AI technologies in science. It works side by side with the Apply AI Strategy and is expected to make scientific research more efficient and scalable to address complex challenges, including in the health sector (EN, EN/FR/NL). At the heart of this strategy is RAISE – the Resource for AI Science in Europe – a virtual institute that will pool and coordinate core AI resources to drive excellence in AI research (EN/FR/NL).

The European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety (DG Santé) published the results of a study exploring the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in clinical practice. The study identifies the challenges to AI deployment and highlights successful strategies employed by hospitals globally to overcome them. The report presents recommendations for future action and proposes a monitoring and indicators framework, with a view to enabling the sustainable integration of AI into European health care systems (EN).

The European Commission evaluated how the directives adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU in 2014 on public procurement were implemented between 2016 and 2024. These directives include a specific ‘light’ regime for public contracts, and concessions for social, health and education services. Overall, the evaluation found that the 2014 directives have only partially met their intended objectives (EN).

The European Commission has presented the Quality Jobs Roadmap, which sets out its commitment to fostering quality jobs in the EU. The roadmap focuses on areas where EU action is most needed and emphasises key enabling factors. These include ensuring effective access to quality public services, such as health care. Robust health systems with an adequately staffed healthcare workforce are considered critical to ensuring the health and well-being of communities (EN/FR/NL).

For the first time, the European Commission has proposed a Council recommendation on human capital as part of the Autumn Package presented in November to launch the 2026 cycle of the European Semester. This recommendation urges the Member States to take urgent actions to address skills shortages in strategic sectors such as health and biotech (EN).

The European Commission has presented its proposal for a Joint Employment Report from the Commission and the Council as part of the 2026 European Semester Autumn Package. The report monitors the employment and social situation in the EU, as well as the implementation of the Employment guidelines adopted in October 2025, and of the European Pillar of Social Rights, including regarding principle 16 on access to health care (EN).

The strategy adopted by the European Commission follows the first ‘LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025’. It aims to foster further progress and ensure that LGBTIQ+ equality is mainstreamed across all EU policies. Concerning health care, the strategy aims to reduce inequalities by: raising awareness and sharing information, also among health care professionals; supporting research projects on better access to health and care services; and promoting prevention tools, as well as interventions in the field of mental health (EN).

The Council of the EU has adopted conclusions urging the Member States and the European Commission to strengthen the prevention, early detection and intervention measures in place for violence against women and domestic violence. The measures include cross-sectoral partnerships, training, coordination and cooperation between all relevant actors, including health care workers, so as to enable them to detect risks and signs of violence, also among pregnant women and new parents (EN/FR/NL).

A resolution adopted by the European Parliament calls on the European Commission to present an ambitious Gender Equality Strategy for 2026-2030. One of the key areas for action is the promotion of universal access to comprehensive gender-responsive health care (EN/FR).

The Council of the EU approved conclusions on the social inclusion of persons with disabilities through the promotion of independent living. This includes ensuring that services available to the general population, such as health care, are also accessible, affordable, inclusive and adaptable for persons with disabilities (EN/FR/NL).

The European Parliament has called for the EU Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disability to be updated ambitiously and effectively for the period 2025-2030. It considers that policy areas such as equal access to social protection, health care and care services have received insufficient attention so far and urges the European Commission to develop new flagship initiatives in these areas. Access to health care for women and girls with disabilities is among the key areas of concern (EN/FR).

The European Commission has launched the 2026 European Semester cycle by adopting its Autumn Package. This outlines economic and employment policy priorities to boost competitiveness in the EU (EN/FR/NL). The Commission assessed all Member States’ compliance with the EU fiscal framework, including monitoring the health care spending and reforms listed in the Draft Budgetary Plans submitted by Member States for 2026 (EN). The package also introduces a new European Macroeconomic Report, which highlights mounting long-term spending pressures from areas such as health care and long-term care (EN). The Commission has also published the results of the post-programme surveillance of Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, countries that have previously received financial assistance. They present the economic, fiscal and financial situation in these countries, including within the health care sector in Greece (EN).

Several initiatives have recently been launched under the EU4Health programme as part of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.

Three projects specifically focus on breast cancer detection and care: the CHOICE project aims to empower women with breast cancer mutation; BrestSCan will test innovative artificial intelligence tools to improve diagnosis and care of breast cancer; UNICA will bring imaging data from breast, lung, and prostate cancer screening into the Cancer Image Europe platform (EN).

The European Network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres (EUnetCCC) aims to help cancer patients access high-quality prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care through a sustainable network of comprehensive cancer centres. Four centres were nominated in Belgium to obtain the corresponding EU certification (EN).

Cancer Watch is a joint action that aims to deliver new tools, shared methodologies, and a roadmap for future cancer indicators, while also identifying opportunities to expand registry coverage into currently uncovered regions (EN).

The SHEILD Joint Action works towards preventing infections that can lead to cancer by making it easier to get vaccinated, tested and treated. The consortium consists of 68 partners from 25 European countries, including Belgium (EN).

The European Commission has published an interim evaluation of the EU4Health programme, covering actions funded between January 2021 and April 2024. The findings show that the programme has made a significant contribution to the building of the European Health Union, and highlight progress in key areas such as crisis preparedness and response, health promotion and disease prevention, cancer, and rare diseases (EN).

A coalition of 38 health and patient advocacy organisations, the EU4Health Civil Society Alliance, has urged EU Member States to ensure that the EU4Health 2026 Work Programme reinstates operating grants for civil society organisations and that the next Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034 allocates a robust and sustained budget to health. The removal of operating grants in 2025 has significantly undermined civil society capacity to work effectively, pushing organisations to close, reduce their activities or make their staff redundant (EN).

The European Commission has approved the German State aid of €47 million for Vetter Pharma, a German pharmaceutical service provider. The aid will support the establishment of a new plant for the aseptic filling of injectable medicine into vials and syringes in Saarlouis, in the Saarland (EN/FR).

The European Commission has approved the creation of a joint venture by Ambulanzzentrum des UKE GmbH and Philips GmbH, both based in Germany. The transaction relates to the operation of a sports medicine centre for ambulatory treatment in the city of Hamburg, Germany (EN).

The European Commission has approved the creation of a joint venture, HAD Bordeaux Metropole, by Clinique Saint-Augustin, Clinique Tivoli-Ducos and Polyclinique Bordeaux Nord Aquitaine, all based in France. The transaction relates primarily to home hospital care services for patients in the Bordeaux metropolitan area (EN/FR).

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of sole control of Nidda German Topco GmbH, a holding company of the STADA Group, based in Germany, by CapVest, a mid-market private equity firm based in the United Kingdom. The STADA Group is a pharmaceutical company with local presence in all major European markets (EN).

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of joint control of KPCI Holdings Limited by Bain Capital and Kohlberg, all based in the United States. The transaction relates primarily to the provision of clinical trial services and to contract development, manufacturing and packaging services for finished dose pharmaceuticals (EN).

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of sole control of Biogaran, based in France, by BC Partners, an international asset management firm based in the United Kingdom. The transaction relates primarily to the promotion, distribution, marketing and sale of generic medicines, biosimilar medicines, as well as medicines for everyday aliments and dietary supplements (EN).

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of sole control of Haemato by Phoenix, a German integrated healthcare provider operating in Germany and other European countries. Haemato is a specialist wholesaler operating in Germany and Austria for medicines in the fields of HIV/AIDS, neurology, oncology, rheumatology and ophthalmology (EN).

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of joint control of Bavarian Nordic, a global provider of travel vaccines based in Denmark, by Nordic Capital, a private equity firm based in Jersey, and Permira Holdings Limited of Guernsey. The transaction relates primarily to the manufacture and supply of vaccines in support of public health preparedness initiatives (EN).

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of sole control by Intuitive Surgical, an American company active worldwide, of AB Medica Group’s distribution activities for Intuitive’s medical equipment in Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Spain and Portugal. The transaction relates primarily to the manufacture, sale and distribution of surgical equipment (EN).

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of joint control of Proteor by Eurazeo and Crédit Mutuel Equity, all based in France. Proteor is active in the production and supply of orthotics and prosthetics equipment and components (EN).

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of sole control of Invacare, based in Switzerland, and DHG, based in the United Kingdom, by Rhône Capital, a private equity investment firm based in the United States. The transaction relates primarily to the manufacture and supply of medical equipment for patients with reduced mobility (EN).

In case C-743/23, the Court of Justice ruled on how to determine the applicable social security legislation for a worker employed simultaneously in Switzerland, Germany and in third countries, under regulation (EC) No 883/2004. According to the Court, work carried out in third countries must be considered when assessing whether a ‘substantial part’ of a worker’s activity is performed in their Member State of residence (EN/FR/NL).

In case C-2/24 P, the Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed Teva and Cephalon’s appeal against the 2023 judgment of the General Court. This judgment dismissed a previous action for annulment brought by the two companies against a 2020 decision of the European Commission, which imposed a fine of around €60.5 million on Teva and Cephalon for agreeing to delay the market entry of a generic version of Cephalon’s drug for sleep disorders, modafinil, after Cephalon’s main patent had expired (EN/FR/NL).

Case C-678/23 involves a Romanian doctor who lost entitlement to pension and leave benefits after the hospital where she worked failed to renew the workplace’s risk classification. The Court of Justice ruled that articles 9 and 11(6) of Directive 89/391/EEC, on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work, do not apply to national legislation that denies workers the ability to challenge the classification of their working conditions or obtain retroactive recognition of rights (EN/FR/NL).

In case C-118/24, the Advocate General has proposed clarifications on how to implement the decentralised procedure set out in Directive 2001/83/EC on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use. Under this procedure, a medicinal product that meets the conditions for being a generic version of a previously authorised medicinal product can be placed on the market in several Member States in a simplified manner (EN/FR/NL).

Case C-604/24 relates to the interpretation of Article 85c of Directive 2001/83/EC on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use, which regulates the marketing of medicinal products online. The Advocate General suggests that this article precludes a national provision prohibiting electronic pharmacy establishments from selling to the public, by means of information society services, certain non-prescription medicinal products, on grounds of public health protection (EN/FR/NL).

The European Commission has sent a letter of formal notice to Belgium after finding that several public administrations have been paying suppliers late, beyond the maximum time limits set out in Directive 2011/7/EU on combating late payments in commercial transactions. The limit for entities providing health care is 60 days. Belgium is also failing to fulfil its obligations regarding the repayment of the fixed recovery compensation, as required by the Directive (EN/FR/NL).

The European Commission has sent reasoned opinions to Belgium and Latvia for having only partially communicated the transposition of Directive (EU) 2022/2557 on the resilience of critical entities. The Directive seeks to ensure the uninterrupted provision of vital services in key sectors, such as health, by strengthening the resilience of critical entities that provide these services against threats (EN/FR/NL).

The European Commission has referred Bulgaria to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to correctly transpose Directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement. Bulgarian legislation currently excludes certain privately owned medical establishments from the scope of EU procurement rules, even when most of their funding comes from public sources. This exclusion is not in line with the definition in the Directive of ‘bodies governed by public law’ (EN/FR).

The European Commission has sent a reasoned opinion to Germany for failing to correctly transpose Directive 2004/113/EC implementing the principle of equal treatment between men and women in the access to and supply of goods and services. The Directive includes key areas, such as health care, and covers legal protections against various types of harassment (EN/FR/NL).

A new report from the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe presents the findings of the MeND survey, which was disseminated across all EU Member States, Iceland and Norway from October 2024 to April 2025. The survey assessed the mental health and well-being of nurses and doctors, as well as the main workplace factors that either support or hinder them. Seven policy actions are proposed to better protect and promote mental health in the health care sector (EN).

A policy brief published by the European Trade Union Institute calls for the cross-border recognition of disability status and for the exportability of social benefits across EU Member States, to ensure the free mobility of persons with disabilities for work or educational purposes (EN).

The 2025 European Health Forum Gastein brought together policymakers, health professionals, representatives of civil society, industry and academia, with the aim of rethinking solidarity in health, and discussing how health systems can contribute to renewing the social contract in European society. The final report outlines the insights, debates and proposals that emerged during the conference (EN).

A report published by Eurofound maps the extent to which the front- and back-office processes of social benefit systems are digitalised in EU Member States and Norway, and the impact of the EU in this process. It discusses challenges and opportunities linked to digitalisation, identifies mitigation measures and success factors, and draws lessons for mutual learning. The report focuses on monetary social benefits, including sickness and disability benefits (EN).

The WeLaR project, funded by the Horizon Europe programme, investigated how welfare systems and labour market policies could contribute to economic and social resilience in Europe. This involved conducting a foresight exercise to explore how Europe’s labour market and welfare systems could evolve by 2040 under different combinations of global economic integration, climate policy ambition and technological change. The exercise and final report were led by researchers from the Research Institute for Work and Society (HIVA) at KU Leuven, the Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI), and the European Social Observatory (OSE) (EN).