Strengthening the link between well-being and the economy: the key to a successful and sustainable European Care Strategy

Care is a vital component of citizens’ lives and of a country’s economy, and a lack of care infrastructures could seriously undermine the European economic recovery.

Improving care for society as a whole requires a “Culture of Care”, that is, inclusive and holistic health and care systems with a life-cycle approach. To address the future challenges of healthy ageing, physical inactivity, and Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like cancer, next generation health and care systems will need to overcome short-term cost containments and devote more attention to patient- and prevention-centric health and care capable of absorbing rising labour demands.

Care, prevention, and health innovation are still systematically underfunded. For this reason, All Policies for a Healthy Europe welcomes the European Commission’s European Care Strategy, which focuses on sustainable long-term care, early-childhood care, and education through a life-cycle approach to care. To this end, the Coalition has developed several recommendations based on the expertise of its cross-sectoral and transversal membership and concrete case studies.

Read our full paper with recommendations below:

Our 2022 Economy Policy Paper

Zero-Pollution Ambition

Prioritising citizens’ health &
well-being

The wealth of society in purely economic terms is still considered more important than citizens’ well-being.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting the flaws in previous economic measures that do not take into account issues like resilience, environmental sustainability and social inequality.

All Policies for a Healthy Europe is calling on the EU and its Member States to grasp the opportunity offered by the pandemic to effectively move beyond GDP as the main indicator for economic and all other policies. We recommend the following actions to be taken immediately:

Increase statistical capacities to ensure regularly updated and mainstreamed indicators

Such a decision should be financially planned in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) of the EU

Achieve a political commitment by EU institutions to swiftly adopt and use well-being indicators

The Commission should issue a Communication addressing the Economy of Wellbeing (as asked by the Council in its 2019 Conclusions) and push for the adoption by the EU and its Member States of a Charter of Health and Well-being.

Reform the European macro-economic policy framework

Take into account indicators of social well-being in the upcoming Action Plan to Implement the European Pillar of Social Rights.
Reform the European Semester process to incorporate well-being indicators in national budget assessments and include Health and Environment Ministers in the process.

This pandemic is showing us that the economy should serve life, not the other way around.

I’m convinced that well-being must be the focal point of our concern. Wellbeing means much more than prosperity, much more than the sacrosanct GDP. Well-being also means a caring society. This should be our new European horizon

The ecological transformation has to go hand-in-hand with sustainability, economic sustainability, social sustainability, and the struggle against inequality. GDP is not a sufficient way of measuring this.

Economy Policy