Next week, Bilbao will host the 19th European Public Health Conference. While the main conference runs from 11–13 November, the programme begins a day earlier with a series of pre-conferences addressing key public health priorities across Europe.
JA PreventNCD will contribute to two of these pre-conferences, including Operationalising the Safe Hearts Plan through European Joint Actions on 10 November.
Co-organised by JA PreventNCD, JACARDI, the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) Chronic Diseases Section and the EUPHA Public Health Monitoring and Reporting Section, the pre-conference will examine how European Joint Actions can support the implementation of the EU Safe Hearts Plan.
Adopted by the European Commission in December 2025, the Safe Hearts Plan represents a major step towards a more coordinated European response to cardiovascular diseases. The challenge now is to turn its ambitions into practical measures that can improve cardiovascular health across Member States.
Exploring the three pillars of the Safe Hearts Plan
Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death in Europe, with significant differences in risk, prevention and access to care between countries and population groups. Addressing these challenges requires action that extends beyond healthcare systems to the conditions that influence people's health throughout their lives.
The pre-conference will examine how JA PreventNCD and JACARDI can contribute to implementing the Safe Hearts Plan across its three interconnected pillars, highlighting relevant evidence, experiences and activities from the two Joint Actions.
Prevention will focus on how population-level approaches can contribute to the Plan's prevention objectives. Discussions will explore health literacy, awareness, social and structural inequalities, environmental factors and the role of civil society in strengthening cardiovascular disease prevention.
Early detection and screening will explore how structured health checks, screening programmes and improved monitoring can help identify people at risk. Contributions will examine practical experiences from Member States, including opportunities for screening in workplace settings and recommendations for cardiometabolic health checks.
Treatment and care will address integrated care pathways, self-management support and patient empowerment. The discussions will consider how evidence from different countries can inform improvements in care and strengthen health system responses to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Beyond these three pillars, the programme will address issues that cut across the Safe Hearts Plan, including health equity, data governance, digital technologies, artificial intelligence and research priorities.
The day will conclude with a high-level roundtable exploring how the results of European Joint Actions can support sustainable implementation at national and European levels.
From European cooperation to lasting action
Closing the gap between what we know works and what is implemented in practice remains a major challenge for cardiovascular disease prevention. Effective measures require consistent implementation, adequate funding, and equitable access. The Safe Hearts Plan offers an opportunity to address this gap, but its success will depend on turning policy commitments into practical action across Member States.
For JA PreventNCD, the Plan's emphasis on primary prevention is particularly relevant. The Joint Action works at both population and individual levels, from improving health literacy and identifying risks to creating healthier living environments and strengthening the policies that shape them.
This includes addressing the social and commercial determinants of health through coordinated action across policy sectors, including regulatory and fiscal measures. By tackling the wider conditions that influence cardiovascular health, JA PreventNCD aims to make prevention more effective and equitable, complementing JACARDI's work on cardiovascular disease and diabetes prevention, early detection and integrated care.
Prof. Knut-Inge Klepp, Scientific Coordinator of JA PreventNCD, emphasised that strong evidence already exists for many measures to prevent cardiovascular disease. The challenge now is putting that evidence into practice:
"We already have strong evidence for many of the measures needed to prevent cardiovascular disease. The challenge is ensuring that these measures are implemented effectively and at scale, reaching the people and communities who need them most."
Klepp also highlighted the opportunity presented by the Safe Hearts Plan:
"The Safe Hearts Plan provides an important opportunity to move from evidence and policy commitments to practical action, and European Joint Actions have an important role to play in making that happen."
The pre-conference will provide an opportunity to examine where European cooperation is already making a difference, identify remaining implementation challenges and discuss how results can be used by policymakers and public health authorities.
Later this month, on 24 November, JA PreventNCD will also contribute to the HaDEA-organised event, Delivering on the EU Safe Hearts Plan: the impact of EU-funded projects, taking place in Brussels and online.
Join the discussion in Bilbao
The pre-conference takes place on 10 November 2026, from 09:00 to 17:30 CET, at the Euskalduna Conference Centre in Bilbao, Spain.
Registration for pre-conferences remains open, including for participants not attending the main European Public Health Conference.
