EU Platform for Health Action: Achievements and Future Goals

1. The EU platform for action on diet, physical activity and health. What has been achieved, what more can be done? ELC Symposium 21 November, 2012 Philippe Roux European Commission

2. Unhealthy diets and physical inactivity "contribute" to Chronic Diseases

3. Obesity Update OECD 2012 Obesity rates remain high Social disparities in obesity unabated At least 1 in 2 people is overweight or obese in over half of OECD countries Severely obese people lose 8 -10 life years An obese person incurs 25% higher health expenditures in any given year New measures taxes on unhealthy foods and beverages increasingly comprehensive strategies by many governments • http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/1/61/49716427.pdf

4. The White Paper • The last three decades have seen the levels of overweight and obesity in the EU population rise dramatically. • This is particularly worrying among children, where the estimated prevalence of overweightness was 30% in 2006. • The EU Strategy on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity Related Health Issues, also known as the White Paper, is the Commission's response to these concerns – not SANCO response only. • The White Paper is built upon five main pillars: • Creating better informed consumers • Making the healthy option available • Encouraging physical activity • Priority groups and settings • Developing an evidence base to support policy making decisions

5. Intervention logic of the EU Strategy on Nutrition, overweight and obesity Health related issues

6. An action oriented process • The Platform is part of a broader EU Strategy on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity-related Health Issues. • The development of effective partnerships is a basic principle for action. • The Platform Charter reads: “a cooperative and action-oriented approach is respected”. • 33 Platform members • industry • public health NGOs • health professionals • consumer groups

7. What’s the nature of the Platform? cooperative voluntarism multi-stakeholder forum for action discussion on action “agree to disagree” each commitment is subject to other members’ criticism all common actions are challenged from multiple perspectives

8. How does it work? • Members have full responsibility for financing, implementing, monitoring and reporting the actions • Areas of commitments • consumer information, including labelling • education, including lifestyle modification • physical activity promotion • marketing and advertising • composition of foods, availability of healthy food options, portion sizes • advocacy and information exchange

9. Who benefits from the work of the Platform? • Geographical and population reach • just under 40% of commitments target more than 50% of the EU population* • 55% of commitments are multi-national and target more than one Member State* *Mid-term Evaluation Report • Priority target groups • children and adolescents • low socio-economic groups • senior citizens

10. Who benefits from the work of the Platform? Distribution of assessed commitments per target audience Annual Report 2011

11. Who benefits from the work of the Platform?Number of commitments per activity type addressing children and adolescents Annual Report 2012

12. Who benefits from the work of the Platform? Percentage of commitments by geographical coverage Annual Report 2012

13. What else happens in the Platform? Exchange of information on other initiatives and good practices out of the Platform Information on developments in the work of EU institutions and Member States Updates on recent events and publications in the Platform field of work Observers from the WHO, EFSA, ECOSOC, certain Member States, EP, relevant scientists

14. Is the Platform successful? • More than 300 commitments in 6 years • External Mid-term Evaluation – conclusions • Balanced distribution between not-for-profit and for-profit members • Better understanding among members through “dialogue that has become more constructive and less confrontational over the years” • Platform commitments in the areas of advertising/marketing to children and food/drink reformulation are having an impact.* *based on 2 case studies • Selected case studies suggest commitments in the areas of marketing/advertising to children and food/drink reformulation are being implemented effectively.

15. Platform ACTIONS primarily linked to members’ core business activities - examples* • *Mid-term Evaluation Report

16. Concrete results from Platform commitments - examples • More than 15 340 670 children have benefitted from Platform actions encouraging physical activity • 10 dedicated websites featuring healthy nutrition and physical activity topics (one more in the pipeline) • Food reformulation • 183 tons of salt reduction (2006-2010) • 1314 tons of fat reduction (2008-2010) • 2229 tons of sugar reduction (2006-2010)

17. Concrete results from Platform commitments: examples • The renewed Pledge (approximately 80% of food and beverage advertising spent in the EU) • Voluntary commitment • No advertising of products to children under 12 years*, except for products which fulfil shared specific nutrition thresholds based on accepted scientific evidence and/or applicable national and international dietary guidelines. • Media covered : TV, Print, third-party internet and company-owned websites, • Audience definition: >35% • No communication related to products in primary schools, except where specifically requested by, or agreed with, the school administration for educational purposes.

18. Concrete results from Platform commitments: examples Diet, Physical Activity and CVD Prevention in Europe • Scientific reviews on fats, salt, sugars, dietary fibre, complex carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables, BMI/energy intake, physical activity, folate, polyphenols and CVD • Research findings published in a report • Main target audience: policy makers • More than 1600 hits of the launched website • Policy conference with the participation of Director General Paola TestoriCoggi to disseminate the results and to address stakeholders

19. Concrete results from Platform commitments : examples Stakeholders discussing out of home nutrition information • survey indicates consumer interest in information on calories in restaurants • advocacy action aiming to: • look at provision of nutrition information on foods in restaurants and other food establishments • lead informal discussions with representatives of the restaurant sector • exchange views on communicating consumer information at point of sale

20. Platform 2012-2013: the way forward • Improvements of already existing commitments and new ones: • responsible advertising/marketing to children • food reformulation • Vulnerable groups • children and adolescents • low socio-economic groups • Physical activity and sports • Reaching out to schools with the aim of increasing physical activity and ……………………………………… making the healthy option available;

21. Strategy Evaluation • Based upon three pillars: • - Case studies according to desired outcomes • - Analysis of statistics & trends • - Evaluation according to instruments

22. Evaluation approach

23. Milestones and Deliverables