MEP Digestive Health Group

A voice for digestive health in the European Parliament

The Digestive Health Group is a cross-party platform of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from different EU Member States, chaired by MEP Romana Jerković. The group aims to raising awareness of the need for better prevention, improved treatment and greater understanding of the causes of digestive diseases. It draws attention to the real-life impact of digestive diseases, their socio-economic burden and it fosters health literacy to strengthen the competence of citizens to manage their health.

Key topics include:

• Prevention & treatment of digestive diseases
• Promoting a healthy lifestyle
• Social and economic costs of (chronic) digestive diseases
• Nutrition/ marketing polices encouraging healthy lifestyles
• Mitigation of alcohol related harm
• Digestive cancers: implementation of quality-controlled screening programmes; increasing standards in cancer care
• Foster research on digestive health in Horizon Europe

On April 26, 2023, we organized an event at the European Parliament that brought together digestive health experts and key stakeholders from the European health community for a lively and solution-oriented discussion on the current state of digestive health across Europe. 

On this occasion, we also launched our latest publication on the burden of digestive diseases. Based on the key findings, we have issued an Open letter addressed to EU leadership with six policy recommendations to create a stronger policy environment for digestive health in the EU.

Read Open Letter

Want to learn more about the key findings from the discussion? Find a summary of the event in our press release. 

Read press release