Spain, Hungary and Belgium address key health issues during the EU Council Presidency

The Minister for Health, José Miñones, has held a trilateral meeting in Stockholm with his Belgian counterpart, Frank Vandenbroucke, and the Hungarian Secretary of State for Health, Péter Takács, to discuss some of the common lines of action for the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU that the three states will assume from the second half of 2023.

The meeting was held in the framework of the Informal Meeting of EU Health Ministers, which is being held in Stockholm, where health crisis preparedness and safe access to medicines, the health situation in Ukraine and access to innovative and well-established medicines were some of the issues discussed.

Likewise debated was the matter of the continued progress of constructing the EU of health, improving the protection of the most vulnerable population, the approach to mental health, the response mechanisms to present and future health alerts and the promotion of the 'One Health' approach.

Miñones, Vandenbroucke and Takács also exchanged views on capacity building of health systems, disease prevention and the promotion of healthy lifestyles, and the development of community health strategies.

Bilateral meeting with Swedish Health Minister

The Minister for Health, the Spanish Ambassador to Sweden, Cristina Latorre, and the Swedish Minister for Health, Acko Ankargerg, also held a bilateral meeting with the aim of coordinating synergies to continue promoting European health policies.

José Miñones expressed to the minister the Government of Spain's recognition of the work carried out during the Presidency of the Council of the EU, which our country will continue during the presidency in the second half of 2023.

In this regard, he shared with Ankargerg the general lines of the health strategy of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, including in terms of legislative advances.

Among others, José Miñones also held meetings with his French counterpart Fraçois Braun, the director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) for Europe, Hans Kluge, and the director of the Netherlands, Ernest Kuipers.

Non official translation