Berlaymont Building Reception for the European Summit on Chronic Diseases 2014

After the workshops and conferences for the day were completed, day one ended with a reception being held at the Berlaymont building in the EU district of Brussels. There was a short address to attendees from the European Commissioner for Health - Tonio Borg. It was a really insightful speech on the current situation of patient health within Europe.

Commissioner Borg noted that diabetes is a condition on the increase in Europe and attributed some of the reasons for this as being down to the fact that people are living longer. Also that the age that patients are developing Type 2 diabetes is getting earlier. This lifestyle change that can be attributed to health is not just an issue for the health ministers but is an issue for all ministers from across the departments.

Apparently only 3% of budgets in Europe are put towards the prevention of chronic illnesses such as diabetes and this is why the Summit has been held - to focus politicians to put chronic conditions high on the political agenda. The 400 participants at the EU Summit event will hopefully mean in the future that when we look back we will remember that we gathered in Brussels in 2014 to share experiences, register progress and plan the strategy to tackle chronic diseases in the future.