Health Values
Analysing, contextualising and promoting the European Union’s health values and their evolution at a particularly crucial time for the future of European healthcare systems
A research initiative dedicated to improving health outcomes and value in health and healthcare innovation across Europe.
In 2006, health minsters had signed a document defining the health values (and principles) of national health systems within the European Union (EU). This was done against a very specific background of individual patients enforcing their cross-border healthcare rights under EU law and the fear of more liberalisation in the health sector.
20 years later, health systems face various challenges, such as population ageing, rising chronic and multimorbid conditions, persistent workforce shortages, and the increasing cross-border mobility and international migration of health professionals. In a paper published in The Lancet in early 2026, we argue that it is time to revise these EU health values and principles so that they can serve as signposts in the aforementioned crises, and to elevate them from the description of national health systems to health values of a true European Health Union.
The project Health Values was launched with the aim of analysing, contextualising and promoting the European Union’s health values, as well as their evolution at a particularly significant juncture for the future of European healthcare systems. Its starting point lies in the framework formulated in 2006 by the EU health ministers, which defined universality, access to quality healthcare, equity and solidarity as common values, accompanied by operational principles such as quality, safety, evidence-based and ethical care, patient involvement, redress, privacy and confidentiality. This framework has been fundamental to understanding the identity of the European healthcare model, but the current context demonstrates the need to review, expand and adapt it to new challenges.
In this regard, the main aim of the project is to contribute to academic, legal, institutional and social reflection on how health values should be interpreted in Europe today. The project is based on the idea that these values are not merely abstract concepts, but guiding principles that explain the rationale behind public action in the health sector and help define how health systems should be organised, how people’s rights should be protected, and how Europe should respond to current and future health challenges. The core text emphasises precisely that values express the ‘why’ behind collective decisions, whilst principles translate those values into concrete criteria for action.
What is Health Values
The significance of the project is best understood when viewed against the current backdrop. Over the last two decades, European healthcare systems have had to contend with an ageing population, an increase in chronic diseases and multimorbidity, a shortage of healthcare professionals, cross-border mobility of patients and workers, and new challenges arising from digitalisation, artificial intelligence and the governance of health data. Added to this are the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions, the concentration of power in large technology companies, the need to strengthen the resilience of healthcare systems, and the growing impact of climate change on health. All of this necessitates a reconsideration of whether the framework formulated in 2006 remains adequate or whether it should be reformulated from a broader and more up-to-date perspective.
For this reason, the project aims not only to examine the foundational values of health in the European Union, but also to explore how these might be updated within the framework of a genuine European Health Union. The background document proposes four specific lines of development that are particularly useful for guiding the direction of the project: moving from values understood solely within national systems to values specific to a European Health Union; incorporating a preamble guided by human rights, the right to health, the One Health approach, the protection of vulnerable groups and the principle of leaving no one behind; defining a renewed set of core values — human dignity, freedom and autonomy, universal access to healthcare, equity, resilience and solidarity; and linking these values to specific operational principles such as patient-centred care, data protection, quality, safety, accountability, non-discrimination, and evidence-based and ethical care.
Research Focus Areas
Outcome Measurement and Evidence Generation
We promote rigorous methodologies to capture what matters most — patient outcomes, quality of life, and long-term sustainability.
Value-Based Health Care Frameworks
Research and adaptation of value-based frameworks, including economic evaluation, real-world evidence, and patient-centred metrics.
Policy Analysis and Implementation
Translational research to support policy and health system change, fostering adoption of health-value principles across stakeholders.
