Hellenic Cancer Federation | ELLOK shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Cancer in the Next EU Budget: Competing for Visibility in a New Funding Architecture
Europe is redesigning its budget architecture and cancer policy is being reshaped with it.
At ELLOK 3rd Synergies Forum roundtable on the Multiannual Financial Framework (2028–2034) in Athens this morning, one message was clear: cancer is no longer just a question of funding. It is a question of where health sits in a competitiveness-driven EU budget.
The emerging MFF introduces a shift towards competitive, milestone-based funding under a Competitiveness Fund structure. This creates opportunity but also a structural risk: health may lose visibility as a standalone priority unless it is explicitly protected.
Discussion highlights:
- Cancer is increasingly framed as a pillar of resilience, productivity and social stability, not only a health issue.
- Member States will need to compete for funding through stronger, more strategic national proposals aligned with EU priorities.
Without ring-fencing, health risks being absorbed into broader competitiveness priorities within the EU budget. - Delivery of national cancer strategies will depend on alignment between Ministries of Health and Finance, including ongoing efforts in Greece.
- Across systems, cancer care is increasingly understood as an investment in Europe’s competitiveness and continuity.
- Across the cancer ecosystem spectrum, including a pentahelix of academics, citizens, patients, healthcare professionals, politicians, decision makers and other cancer stakeholders, the framing is converging: cancer is not only a health issue. It is a matter of the utmost importance; of competitiveness, resilience and societal stability.
- From Cyprus to Greece and beyond, one reality is consistent: even the strongest strategies fail without a clearly defined and sustainable budget.
Europe already has the tools and the ambition. The question now is whether health remains a protected priority in the next EU budget or becomes collateral in a broader competitiveness agenda.
That decision will define not only cancer care in Europe, but the resilience of its societies.”
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