Food safety, air quality, endocrine disruptors, GMOs, working conditions, the fight against epidemics, drug evaluation: there are many topics on which the EU tries to coordinate the policies of EU member states to protect European citizens' health. In an aging Europe where the burden of chronic diseases is rising, how to ensure good health for all, while encouraging economic progress?
Health
Facing new risks
Covid and pollution: intimately linked, compound threat
Lockdowns may have temporarily cleared up the skies above big cities but experts warn that air pollution remains a Covid-19 threat multiplier that will far outlast the pandemic
European air quality improves but still detrimental to health: report
Air quality has improved significantly across Europe over the past 10 years, but pollution still contributes to significant numbers of premature deaths, the European Environment Agency says
Bruges shelters canal swans after bird flu outbreaks across Europe
The medieval Belgian city of Bruges has rounded up swans to shelter them from the spread of bird flu after an outbreak of the virus in France, Denmark and the Netherlands
Diet trends to see 4 bn people overweight by 2050: study
More than four billion people could be overweight by 2050, with 1.5 billion of them obese, if the current global dietary trend towards processed foods continues, a new study predicts
Europe sees first dip in Covid-19 cases in months, but deaths up: WHO
The number of new Covid-19 cases across Europe declined last week for the first time in over three months, but deaths in the region continued to climb, the World Health Organisation says
EU eyes vaccinations within months as cases top 1 million in Italy
The European Union expresses hope it can start vaccinating people against Covid-19 in early 2021, as Italy records more than one million cases and Britain's death toll surpasses the 50,000 mark