EU Plan on Heart Disease Lacks Binding Measures
- politics and law
- Transparency and food safety
The European Commission’s new cardiovascular health plan recognises the impact of poor diets but fails to introduce binding measures.
The European Commission's new “Safe Hearts” plan to tackle cardiovascular disease falls short of what’s needed to effectively protect public health. While the strategy, published yesterday, acknowledges the major role unhealthy diets play in heart disease, it lacks concrete, legally binding measures to prevent it.
foodwatch is calling for strong EU-wide laws: a ban on marketing unhealthy food to children, an age restriction for the sale of energy drinks, and mandatory use of the Nutri-Score nutrition label across the EU. These measures are backed by science and urgently needed to improve health outcomes.
Today’s proposal is a missed opportunity and shows once again that this Commission is not willing to put measures in place that will protect public health, even for our children.Head of the foodwatch Brussels Office
Diet-related diseases cost billions every year
Cardiovascular diseases cost the EU €282 billion annually, according to the Commission – with nearly 80 percent of cases considered preventable through healthier lifestyles. Children and young people are particularly at risk, yet the EU’s plan remains vague when it comes to effective regulation. In an open letter to the heads of DG SANTE and DG AGRI, foodwatch urged the Commission to take real political action – and to keep corporate lobby interests out of public health policymaking.
Omnibus package weakens food safety rules
At the same time, the Commission presented a far-reaching legislative package to revise multiple EU rules on food and feed safety. Under the so-called “Omnibus” proposal, the Commission intends to rewrite rules on pesticides, pesticide residues, feed additives, BSE safeguards, and border controls in a single legislative sweep. This as an alarming attempt to dismantle essential consumer protections under the guise of "simplification" and "competitiveness."
For example, the EU Commission wants to make indefinite approvals for pesticides active substances the general rule. The regular safety checks that have been mandatory for all substances up to now would become the exception. This means that questioning existing authorisations based on the latest scientific knowledge would be even more difficult and time-consuming than is currently the case.
Citizens – and the protections built over decades of EU law-making – seem to be the forgotten victims of what looks like a predictable disaster.International Senior Campaigns Strategist
Sources and further information
- EU Cardiovascular plan published on 16/12/2025
- foodwatch Open Letter to DG AGRI and DG SANTE
- Omnibus package on food and feed safety
- foodwatch contribution to the consultation on EU CVHP
- foodwatch response to the leaked Omnibus on food safety
- Study by France's National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment: Foods with low Nutri-Scores associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases