By, Tonio Borg, European Commissioner for Health

I believe health is for all. Everybody should have access to good quality healthcare regardless of gender, age, race, and sexual orientation, type of condition, social status, education, or country of residence. For this to become reality, we need to fight discrimination in health.

Last year I made a personal commitment before the European Parliament to fight discrimination in health in all its forms.

Since then, I have engaged in listening to the voice of all those who face discrimination, who feel victims of stigma, who have difficulties in getting the healthcare they need because of their condition, choices or origins. I have met those who have come to me – from people with HIV/AIDS to people belonging to ethnic minorities - because they were not treated equally. Equality does not mean that new rights are created for special population groups; equality means that no rights are denied to them, either deliberately or through neglect of their needs.

We should reach out to everybody who faces discrimination and seek solutions. This is why I have invited a wide range of stakeholders to Gastein in early October and again to Brussels in March next year for a large scale conference on anti-discrimination, to discuss what we need to do to ensure that everybody has the same access to health services. It is important that these conferences foster a real debate on action to support Member States in improving access to quality healthcare and preventive care for all and eliminating all forms of discrimination.

The EU actively promotes and protects the fundamental human rights of all people living in the EU through a range of programmes and activities. This follows the indication of the Lisbon Treaty and the EU Charter of fundamental rights, which prohibit any discrimination, on any grounds – sex, age, disability, religion or belief, race or ethnic origin, and sexual orientation.

While inequalities in health have been significantly reduced in the EU in the past few years – as our recent report on health inequalities shows - our commitment must be unwavering in order to address the continued gaps in health between social groups and between regions and Member States and remove the barriers in the access to healthcare for vulnerable groups.

Action to bridge health inequalities and to fight all forms of discrimination across Europe must remain a priority if Europe is to succeed in its path towards social cohesion.