17 December 2025

The European Commission yesterday unveiled the EU Cardiovascular Health Plan, marking an important step in Europe’s efforts to address the shared risk factors behind the two leading causes of death across the European Union: cardiovascular disease and cancer.  

Cardiovascular disease and cancer share a wide range of overlapping risk factors, including tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and unhealthy diets. Together, they account for the majority of deaths across the EU each year [1]. 

The Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL) welcomes the new EU Cardiovascular Health Plan – also known as the Safe Hearts Plan – which closely aligns with the ambitions of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. However, the proposal does not provide clear commitments, timelines, or targets for implementation.  

“With the EU Safe Hearts Plan and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, the European Commission now has two much-needed tools to tackle the leading causes of death in Europe. But without concrete actions or timelines, there is a real risk that this initiative will fall short of delivering the urgent action needed to protect public health,” says Alba Gil, Policy Officer at the Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL).  

While the Safe Hearts Plan recognises the main prevention areas behind both cardiovascular disease and cancer, it lacks clarity across several key domains: 

• On unhealthy food, the Plan relies on a voluntary, industry-led code of conduct to address marketing targeted towards children, while referring to the Audiovisual Media Service Directive to further regulate the advertisement of unhealthy products in general. Support for taxation is limited to the implementation of national taxes on some non-alcoholic beverages like energy drinks. On labelling, the Plan refers to “science-based digital information on food processing” instead of introducing mandatory front-of-package nutrition labelling.  

• On tobacco and nicotine control, the proposal reiterates Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan ambitions towards a tobacco-free generation by 2040 and refers to the planned revision of the EU tobacco legislative framework.   

• On alcohol, the Plan recognises its role in the development of cardiovascular disease but proposes no concrete measures to reduce consumption and continues to use the misleading terminology of ‘harmful use of alcohol’, a term that has been challenged by the public health community. 

• On air quality, the Plan acknowledges the health impacts of polluted air but does not outline action to protect citizens.  

• On physical activity, the Commission plans to update the 2013 Council recommendation to promote physical activity across sectors and to strengthen awareness of the link between regular physical activity and cardiovascular health. However, no specific timeline is given.  

The Plan also refers to the  European Code Against Cancer, an initiative from the European Commission that was developed by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), as a tool to help policymakers and people across Europe reduce their risk of cancer and cardiovascular events, as both conditions share risk factors. The latest edition of the Code was launched in October 2025. 

Notes: 

1. Cardiovascular disease claims approximately 1.7 million lives every year in the European Union. This accounts for nearly one-in-three of all deaths in the EU. Meanwhile, cancer is estimated to account for 1.3 million deaths every year in the EU.  

For further information, please contact Ivonne Leenen, Communications Officer at the Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL): ivonne@cancer.eu