Promotion of health, active ageing, well-being and disease prevention also depend on an understanding of the determinants of health, on effective preventive tools, such as vaccines, on effective health and disease surveillance and preparedness, and on effective screening programmes.

health promotion and prevention of chronic diseases: to facilitate healthy choices in life for all citizens, to establish health promotion communication messages and interventions for all chronic diseases, to integrate health into education programmes; to further develop quantitative analysis of the cost effectiveness and health gains of health promotion and prevention; to explore, based on scientific evidence, the scope for early detection of relevant risk factors for chronic diseases; to strengthen prevention by applying the principles of health in all policies;

(7) In its Resolution of 29 June 2000 on the follow-up to the Evora conference on health determinants, the Council considered that the increasing differences in health status and health outcomes between and within Member States called for renewed and coordinated efforts at national and Community level; welcomed the Commission's commitment to submit a proposal for a new public health programme containing a specific strand of action aimed at addressing health determinants by means of health promotion and disease prevention underpinned by intersectoral policy and agreed that there was a need to develop the appropriate knowledge base for th ...[+++]is and, therefore, that an efficacious health monitoring system should be established for this purpose; stressed the importance of the new Community public health strategy building upon the activities on specific determinants taken in the existing programmes, especially with respect to tobacco, nutrition and alcohol and that it was important not only to ensure continuity with existing actions, but also to take forward work on these issues in a fully coherent and systematic way.

(7) In its Resolution of 29 June 2000 on the follow-up to the Evora conference on health determinants, the Council considered that the increasing differences in health status and health outcomes between and within Member States called for renewed and coordinated efforts at national and Community level; welcomed the Commission's commitment to submit a proposal for a new public health programme containing a specific strand of action aimed at addressing health determinants by means of health promotion and disease prevention underpinned by intersectoral policy and agreed that there was a need to develop the appropriate knowledge base for th ...[+++]is and, therefore, that an efficacious health monitoring system should be established for this purpose; stressed the importance of the new Community public health strategy building upon the activities on specific determinants taken in the existing programmes, especially with respect to tobacco, nutrition and alcohol and that it was important not only to ensure continuity with existing actions, but also to take forward work on these issues in a fully coherent and systematic way.

Although health issues have featured in the Treaties since the beginnings of the construction of Europe, it is only since the ratification of the Treaty of Maastricht that the Community has been able to implement a genuine public health strategy: five specific action programmes (cancer, AIDS, drug dependence, health promotion and health monitoring) have been adopted and three others proposed (rare diseases, injuries, pollution-related diseases) alongside other initiatives (reports on the state of health in the European Community, recommendations on the safety of blood products, etc.).

Although health issues have featured in the Treaties since the beginnings of the construction of Europe, it is only since the ratification of the Treaty of Maastricht that the Community has been able to implement a genuine public health strategy: five specific action programmes (cancer, AIDS, drug dependence, health promotion and health monitoring) have been adopted and three others proposed (rare diseases, injuries, pollution-related diseases) alongside other initiatives (reports on the state of health in the European Community, recommendations on the safety of blood products, etc.).