The mid-term evaluation of the first three years of the implementation of the third Health Programme 2014-2020 reveals that the European Commission has made major progress towards reaching the programme's objectives.

Most notably, the Commission has helped to:

• establish 24 European Reference Networks for rare disease patients who can now benefit from the best expertise available in Europe,
• increase Member States' capacity-building potential to respond to outbreaks such as Ebola and Zika viruses,
• and strengthen the EU's migration policy by helping EU countries cope with the health needs of migrants and refugees and training health professionals and support staff.

Other achievements of the health programme include sharing of good practices in areas as diverse as alcohol reduction, cancer screening, HIV/AIDS and TB prevention, additional support for EU health legislation on medicinal products and medical devices, the eHealth Network activities and Health Technology Assessment.

The Commission is also continuing its collaboration with the OECD and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies on the State of Health in the EU cycle aimed at strengthening country-specific and EU-wide knowledge on health issues. The initial ''Health at a glance: Europe 2016'' report was published in November 2016. It will be complemented by 28 country profiles and a companion report by November 2017.

The mid-term evaluation is based on the findings of an independent external study conducted from May 2016-May 2017.

More information:

• Report on the mid-term evaluation
• Third EU Health Programme