European Commission establishes Steering Group on Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Management of Non-Communicable Diseases

On 17 July 2018, the European Commission adopted a Decision which established the Steering Group on Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Management of Non-Communicable Diseases as a formal expert body. This steering group will replace existing Commission expert groups (such as the EC Expert Group on Rare Diseases, dissolved in 2016) for particular diseases but may set up sub-groups for limited periods. The European Commission states that “the Steering Group will advise the Commission on the selection of best practices and using them to support their transfer and scaling up at the national and European level using the funds from the EU Health Programme or other EU financial instruments”. It also announced that the first formal meeting for the Steering Group will take place on 6 November 2018 in Luxembourg.