An audacious plan that’s actually working: Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan

Dr Isabel Rubio, President of the European Cancer Organisation, reflects on the EU Commission’s ambitious Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan health initiative, its achievements, and the importance of maintaining momentum to continue making important progress in cancer care

The challenge appeared overwhelming: each year in the European Union, 2.7 million people are diagnosed with cancer, 1.3 million die from it, and an estimated €49 billion in productivity is lost to it.

Five years ago, the European Union formally recognised cancer as a shared policy priority. This acknowledgement led EU Member States to launch the most ambitious health plan this Union has ever undertaken.

Since it began in 2021, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan has delivered real progress across prevention, screening, research, patient care, survivorship; Not promises. Not pilot projects. Real change.
Here are just some of its many achievements so far.

On prevention

The Plan has fostered world-leading legislation, with new limits on air pollution, new legal protections against carcinogens, and updated EU recommendations on smoke and aerosol-free environments.

The Plan has positioned Europe as a global leader in tackling the human papillomavirus (HPV), responsible for cervical cancer and five other types of cancer. All EU countries are now politically committed to gender-neutral HPV vaccination.

On screening

By modernising screening rules and formally adding lung, prostate and gastric cancers to the EU agenda, the Plan is helping countries build organised screening programmes with timely invitations, follow-up and quality control.

On treatment

The Plan, through its Cancer Inequalities Registry, is tracking gaps in treatment outcomes across regions, supporting targeted policy action to improve care where it lags.

On professional development

The Plan is creating a unique European inter-speciality cancer training programme so that cancer professionals from different specialities can train together, improve coordination and strengthen patient care.

On data exchange

The Plan is making it easier and safer to share cancer data and imaging across Europe. This supports better diagnosis, more accurate staging, faster research, and the responsible use of AI tools trained on larger, more diverse datasets.

On comprehensive cancer centres

The Plan, by linking national cancer centres across the EU, is spreading higher standards, expertise, and innovation more evenly and rapidly. This reduces the quality gaps between countries and within countries.

On survivorship

The Plan recognises that cancer care no longer ends with treatment. Follow-up care, late effects, work, education, and quality of life are now being addressed in the Plan, reflecting the growing number of people living with and beyond cancer. And that’s just for starters.

The question now is whether Europe will maintain this momentum. Will we sustain and build on the progress achieved, or allow some of the EU’s most effective health initiatives to quietly fade away? That has become the most pressing question now before the European Cancer Organisation and Europe’s vast cancer community. Everything else seems to pale in comparison.

The EU is currently preparing its long-term budget for 2028 to 2034, a Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) that will set spending priorities for the years ahead. Discussions are underway in Brussels, and political attention is shifting to military readiness, economic competitiveness, and artificial intelligence, among other issues. All very important, to be sure, but they must not be allowed to divert attention from the very real needs of people living with and beyond cancer, and from the necessity of sustained investment in cancer care.

This long-term budget is the financial underpinning of all major areas of EU policy. As such, it is the principal instrument through which the EU expresses its ambitions and the clearest test of what the Union values most.

The European Commission initiated public consultation on the MFF last year, requesting feedback on what works, what needs to change, and where the next wave of EU investment should be directed. The European Cancer Organisation (ECO), acting as the convener of Europe’s vast cancer community, solicited input from our member societies, which we reflected in our submission to the Commission. In addition, ECO has launched a pan-European, public awareness campaign, Reach Higher for Cancer Care, with clear, targeted objectives for the next MFF.

1. Guarantee a dedicated €2bn European Cancer Fund to continue Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and enshrine cancer as a top policy and budget priority in all future EU frameworks
2. Commit to a European policy establishing a European Cancer Institute to coordinate and amplify research, innovation, and policy across Member States
3. Recognise health and oncology care as social objectives eligible for investment under the EU’s National Recovery and Resilience Plans

This is no longer a matter of whether Europe can afford to continue investing in cancer. It is a question of whether it is willing to accept the human, social, and economic costs of failing to act.