Today, Mr Vytenis Andriukaitis, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, announced the winners of the 2018 EU Health Award for NGOs Working to Prevent Tobacco Use. The first prize of €20,000 was awarded to the Irish Cancer Society for the innovative social dimension of their campaign, the peer-to-peer approach, tackling also vulnerable groups in their "X-HALE Youth Smoking Prevention Programme". The second prize of €15,000 was awarded to "Education Against Tobacco" from Germany for a well-structured and well-studied initiative in the form of a multinational network driven by over 3,500 volunteering medical students and physicians from 82 medical schools located in 14 countries worldwide. The third prize of €10,000 was awarded to the "Youth Network No Excuse" from Slovenia for their strong policy and advocacy component and young leadership which included an educational training programme for their activists to become active citizens, by raising awareness in primary and secondary schools, engaging in research activities, and advocating for stronger tobacco-control legislation.

• Photos of the award ceremony 
• The meeting of the EU Health Policy Platform is being web-streamed

Background:

The aim of the EU Health Award for NGOs Working to Prevent Tobacco Use is to reward outstanding initiatives by NGOs which have helped achieve higher levels of public health for Europeans through actions aimed at avoiding tobacco use initiation among adolescents and young adults.

For more information:

• 2018 EU Health Award for NGOs