Open Letter to EU Leaders and Ministers of Finance Ahead of 20th February Council Meeting

On behalf of the European Cancer Organisation, the umbrella federation of 28 European and international level societies working with 17 patient advocacy organisations to improve cancer care and outcomes in all countries, President of the European Cancer Organisation, Dr Aapro, wrote an open letter to EU Leaders and Ministers of Finance ahead of 20th February Council Meeting on the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-27.

Dr Aapro expressed an urgent and growing sense of concern from the cancer community that, dependent on decisions made at Thursday’s Council Meeting, recent commitments on tackling cancer could fail to meet public expectation if resulting cuts to spending plans need to be made. "Cutting the resource available to EU cooperation mechanisms for cancer will logically restrict the scale of success that might be achieved by the new EU Cancer Mission and Cancer Plan," said Dr Aapro.

The European Cancer Organisation's community requests that the actors and agents across Europe who are ready to serve the goals of the EU Cancer Mission and Cancer Plan are provided with the tools and support to deliver them. This means an EU budget that matches the crucial ambitions we set ourselves.

Dr Aapro called for representatives of EU national governments to have the needs of the European cancer community foremost in mind at this important period of financial decision-making.

Read the Open Letter here.