European Commission presents action plan on cardiovascular diseases.

As part of the EU Health Package presented on 16 December, the European Commission published its Plan for Cardiovascular Health: the Safe Hearts Plan. It represents the EU’s first comprehensive approach to addressing cardiovascular diseases and sets out targeted measures to improve prevention, early detection and treatment. Through ambitious action at EU level combined with continued financial support, the Commission aims to assist Member States in reducing existing inequalities. At the same time, the Plan seeks to accelerate breakthroughs in research and innovation and to strengthen exchange and cooperation through cross-border research programmes and centres of excellence.

Ambitious objectives

The Safe Hearts Plan aims to reduce premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases by 25 per cent by 2035. At the same time, it seeks to achieve high coverage of key risk factors through regular medical screening, in particular reaching 75–90 per cent of the population for blood pressure measurement and 65–80 per cent for annual cholesterol and blood glucose testing (depending on age).

The Safe Hearts Plan is based on three core pillars covering the entire care pathway for patients with cardiovascular diseases: prevention; early detection and screening; and treatment and care, including rehabilitation.

Prevention

Prevention is a central focus of the Safe Hearts Plan. The EU intends to support Member States in developing and implementing national cardiovascular disease strategies and to bring these together under the flagship initiative “EU cares for your heart”. The Plan also foresees strengthened measures against tobacco use, including a revision of EU tobacco legislation announced for 2026 with the objective of significantly reducing consumption by 2040. In addition, physical activity is to be promoted, children and adolescents better protected from harmful advertising, and vaccination more strongly addressed as a preventive tool.

However, the Plan falls short of expectations in the area of nutrition policy. The Commission has abandoned the idea, discussed at an earlier stage, of an EU-wide tax on highly processed foods high in fat, sugar and salt, limiting itself instead to announcing further assessments. Clearer and more binding instruments to reduce diet-related risks would have better underpinned the Plan’s preventive ambition.

Early detection and screening

In the area of early detection, the initiative focuses on greater coordination and accessibility. An EU protocol for cardiovascular health checks is envisaged, recommending a common approach for national preventive examinations. In addition, targeted support is planned for mobile screening programmes to bring preventive services and healthcare closer to people in a low-threshold and community-based manner.

Treatment and care, including rehabilitation

With regard to the treatment and care of cardiovascular diseases, the Plan promotes more integrated and personalised approaches. It includes a recommendation to improve care delivery, inter alia, through the targeted use of digital tools to better connect care pathways and support personalised therapies. In addition, a European network of cardiovascular health centres is to be established to pool expertise and facilitate the implementation of diagnostics, treatment, rehabilitation and long-term care. Flanking measures include the creation of a health inequalities dashboard to systematically capture disparities in care, as well as an investment of 40 million euros to improve research into sex- and gender-specific aspects of cardiovascular diseases.

Initial assessment: ambitious, but still lacking binding measures

With the Safe Hearts Plan, the European Commission addresses a key public health challenge. Particularly positive from DSV’s point of view is the clear Health in All Policies approach, which explicitly tackles key determinants of cardiovascular diseases—from tobacco and alcohol consumption to nutrition, physical inactivity, air pollution and social inequalities. This is explicitly welcomed by the DSV. The targets set are also ambitious. However, it will be decisive whether these objectives are followed by binding instruments and effective implementation, as many measures remain largely programmatic at this stage.

At the same time, the measures on early detection, screening and treatment—as well as the title itself—partly recall the German federal government’s draft Healthy Heart Act (Gesunde-Herz-Gesetz), which was criticised by the statutory health insurance funds for its strong focus on screening and pharmacological interventions. From the DSV’s perspective, it is crucial that this focus does not come at the expense of behavioural and structural prevention measures. In particular, vulnerable groups must be reached and population-wide prevention approaches pursued