- 12 September 2025
- Posted by: Competere
- Categories: Balanced Lifestyle, Empowering Consumers, highlights, News
Competere’s Contribution to the EU Cardiovascular Health Plan
We are proud to share our contribution to the European Commission’s call for evidence on the EU Cardiovascular Health Plan. We welcome the initiative to address cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), a chronic pandemic of the 21st century, through prevention, early detection, treatment, and innovation. In the attached document, we share our perspective: effective action against CVDs requires a radical shift in approach.
Download the full contribution here >>>
Why cardiovascular health matters
NCDs and Cardiovascular diseases account for more than 70% of global deaths and about 4 million in Europe each year, including 1.7 million linked to the heart and vascular system. CVDs alone cost the EU around €280 billion annually. Beyond the numbers, their impact is felt across productivity, mental wellbeing, and healthcare sustainability, threatening to reverse the gains in life expectancy for the first time in human history.
Why We Are Regressing
This regression is driven by unbalanced lifestyles: excessive caloric intake combined with a drastic reduction in energy expenditure, the collapse of spontaneous play among children, pollution, chronic stress, smoking, alcohol and substance abuse, sleep disorders, and adverse socio-economic and urban conditions.
Why a New Approach is Needed
We strongly believe that “one size fits all” solutions – such as sugar taxes or simplified front-of-pack labels – have failed to deliver results and risk unintended consequences. To effectively tackle CVDs and obesity, Europe must move beyond ideological and standardized measures towards a balanced, personalized, and multidimensional strategy.
Our key recommendations
We propose that the EU Cardiovascular Health Plan should:
- Recognize NCDs and CVDs as a chronic emergency threatening health, productivity, and healthcare sustainability.
- Adopt policies grounded in scientific evidence, evaluated for real impact on obesity and CVDs, while avoiding unintended social and economic consequences.
- Ensure equity of access and combat stigma by integrating obesity care into cardiovascular pathways and promoting EU-wide awareness campaigns.
- Abandon ideological, standardized approaches in favor of adaptable, individual-based solutions.
- Empower citizens through education and digital tools for precision health, encouraging moderation and balance in daily life.
- Make physical activity a cornerstone of prevention, alongside balanced nutrition.
- Promote healthier environments, reducing pollution and fostering movement-friendly urban spaces.
Our vision for the future
We see three priorities shaping Europe’s response. Precision health can empower citizens through technology, wearables, and digital tools that guide everyday choices. Medical innovation, including new therapies such as GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors, must be integrated into care pathways with equity of access and without stigma. Finally, our 3Es framework – Exercise, Enjoyment, and Eating – offers a simple yet powerful foundation for healthier, longer lives, restoring the balance where energy expenditure leads caloric intake.
A European Leadership Opportunity
With these proposals, we encourage the EU to adopt a strategy that is ambitious, evidence-based, and future-oriented. Only with such a comprehensive approach can Europe reverse the trajectory of CVDs and obesity, strengthen public health, and reaffirm its global leadership in prevention.