Vice-President Suica delivers a keynote speech via video message for an awards ceremony “Going for gold: How do countries compete when it comes to healthy ageing?” organized by International Longevity Centre, ILC France and ILC EU Network

VP Suica delivers a speech for an ILC awards ceremony

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am so grateful for this opportunity to address this event organised by the International Longevity Centre.

It is my privilege to accept this award for healthy ageing and prevention on behalf of the European Union.

People across Europe are living longer and healthier lives. This is something to celebrate!

At the same time, we must invest in responding to the needs of older people.

It is crucial to focus efforts on lifelong health and the prevention of ill-health, from our early years all the way through to later life.

The European Commission supports a comprehensive approach that promotes good health throughout the entire lifespan.

We recognise the importance of promoting healthy lifestyles and disease prevention, to foster healthy living for all generations. Prevention is better than cure.

One of the main tools of the Commission is the ‘Healthier Together' initiative, co-created with national public health authorities and stakeholders, on non-communicable diseases.

Our approach also supports Member States to respond to specific challenges associated with increased longevity, such as dementia, loneliness, and mental health. Just think of the Care Strategy that we adopted in 2022, as well as the mental health strategy that we approved last Autumn.

I note that today you also award a prize for vaccination. This is also key to prevent diseases in all phases of life. The Commission supports Member States to work together on the benefits of vaccination, and to remove barriers to its up-take.

More broadly, our Expert Group on Public Health, together with our Member States, takes a comprehensive approach to the prevention of non-communicable diseases.

Our approach is guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goal for 2030. The aim is to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by one-third by 2030.

Comprehensive, health-in-all-policies, and a prevention-oriented approach, will reduce human suffering and decrease the burden on national healthcare and welfare systems. As we look to the next decades, this is particularly important given the demographic transformation that we are going through.

To conclude, I would like to say a few words of congratulation:
1. To our Member States, for deserving the reward that I am accepting today; we are successful but, as in every sport, we need to keep training in order to improve!

2. To the Member State I know best, for its performance in the category “sport climbing”, for the big improvement between 2019 and 2022.

3. And last but not least, I would like to congratulate the ILC on the Going for Gold project. I am impressed at the research you have done into how countries perform in terms of healthy ageing and prevention. And I am grateful for the visibility you are giving to this important work, including through today's event in Paris.

Thank you for this honour and our successful collaboration!