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Health and structural funds

The EU cohesion policy and health

The aim of EU cohesion policy is to reduce regional economic/social disparities in Europe – largely through the EU structural funds.

Health has increasingly been recognised as an important asset for regional development and competitiveness and has become eligible for regional cohesion funding:

• European Regional Development Fund – €5bn allocated for health infrastructure investment in 2007-13

• European Social Fund – funds health activities linked to ageing, e-health, health promotion and training.

However, these are relatively small amounts, so funding needs to be used effectively by national and regional authorities.

How can you get health funding from the structural funds?

Identify whether your project idea matches the priorities of the structural funding programmes in your country/region

More information on the use of the structural funds for health

EU Cooperation with regions/regional networks in health

Regions play an important role in delivering healthcare to citizens. Therefore the Commission closely cooperates with regions at EU level to enhance early involvement of regions in the definition of the EU health policy and initiatives, exchange of good practices on issues of common interest and the implementation of the EU Health Strategy.