EU Statement – UN General Assembly: High-level dialogue on the social, economic and environmental determinants of health
Chair,
Director-General, Colleagues,
I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.
The Candidate Countries North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, Albania*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina* and Georgia, align themselves with this statement.
We are fully committed to addressing the challenges of non-communicable diseases and mental health conditions and their impact for our citizens and health systems.
We join the global health community in rallying towards the upcoming High-Level Meeting with a political declaration which is both ambitious and realistic.
In that perspective, we welcome today’s high-level interactive dialogue on the social, economic and environmental determinants of health, which is a crucial aspect of this work, and would have three messages.
First, we need to tackle comprehensively the three elements set out in the 2018 Political Declaration: (i) the underlying economic, social and environmental determinants of health; (ii) the main common risk factors of NCDs and mental health conditions and (iii) the impact of economic, commercial, and market factors.
This framework has proven helpful in directing our efforts towards effective and actionable solutions. And our focus must be to continue to address these concrete elements through practical and effective measures that improve the health and well-being of our citizens and enhance the resilience of our health systems.
Second, we believe it is important to support the implementation of high-impact, cost-effective actions addressing risk factors such as tobacco and nicotine use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, and air pollution including through prevention actions.
Such actions could include fiscal, marketing and availability measures as appropriate in the national context.
However, and this brings me to the final point, for that purpose we support a collaborative approach, which ensures that our collective actions are grounded in evidence, take a whole-of-government and whole-of- society approach, and adapt to the various circumstances and approaches of sovereign national contexts.
It is particularly vital to follow a multisectoral collaboration approach, implemented through social participation and involving relevant sectors, including public and private actors. Governments and other public actors design and implement legislative measures to guarantee public health targeted to their national circumstances and respecting international commitments. The private sector also has a key role to play through responsible engagement and voluntary partnership, while giving due regard to preventing conflicts of interest.
Chair, Director-General, Colleagues,
We trust that this approach can lead to a successful outcome of the High-Level Meeting with an ambitious and realistic Political Declaration, through a process led and driven by Member States working hand in hand to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals – we will need to walk the talk for our citizens and global health.
Thank you.
* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.