Lobbying by United European Gastroenterology

United European Gastroenterology

UEG

UEG, or United European Gastroenterology, is a professional non-profit organisation combining all the leading European societies concerned with digestive disease.

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ID: 665390317626-77

Lobbying Activity

Response to EU cardiovascular health plan

12 Sept 2025

Digestive health is integral to cardiovascular health. United European Gastroenterology (UEG), the leading non-profit organisation for excellence in digestive health representing over 50,000 specialists across all European member states, urges the European Commission to ensure that the Cardiovascular Health Plan fully recognises these interconnections and integrates strategies that address them. To this end, we are pleased to share our recommendations in the attached document.

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Meeting with Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis (Member of the European Parliament)

5 Jun 2025 · EU Health Policy

Meeting with András Tivadar Kulja (Member of the European Parliament)

4 Nov 2024 · Digestive diseases

Meeting with Catherine Amalric (Member of the European Parliament) and European Brain Council and

18 Mar 2024 · Renew Europe Workshop on Healthcare in Europe and the patient-centric approach

Response to Evaluation and revision of the general pharmaceutical legislation

28 Aug 2023

United European Gastroenterology (UEG) is the leading non-profit organisation for excellence in digestive health in Europe and beyond. We promote science, research, education, quality of care and advocate to prevent and reduce health inequalities across Europe to achieve optimal patient care. We unite 17 Specialist Member Societies and 49 National Member Societies. The scope of our Member Societies ranges from general gastroenterology to more disease- and organ-oriented special interest associations on a pan-European level. In our role as umbrella for multidisciplinary gastroenterology, we hereby bring forward the recommendations of one of our Specialist Member Societies - the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN). In light of this, we would like to particularly stress that the legislative update should: - Retain the Pediatric Committee (PDCO) within EMA - Solve the situation with the unacceptable delays in the use of new efficient drugs in paediatric patients - Enable legal regulatory support to use real-world evidence and post-marketing long-term extension studies for monitoring safety and efficacy The full feedback on behalf of ESPGHAN is enclosed.

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Meeting with Sarah Wiener (Member of the European Parliament)

26 Apr 2023 · food policy, healthy nutrition, processed foods & labelling

Meeting with István Ujhelyi (Member of the European Parliament)

26 Apr 2023 · Health

Meeting with Tomislav Sokol (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

26 Apr 2023 · European Health Data Space - EHDS

Response to Vaccine-Preventable Cancers

6 Feb 2023

United European Gastroenterology (UEG) is a European umbrella organization for multidisciplinary gastroenterology, uniting over 50,000 engaged professionals from national and specialist societies, with a strong mission to reduce the burden of digestive diseases and improve digestive health. The hepatitis B vaccine is the worlds first anti-cancer vaccine. It is estimated that it will be able to prevent 38 million deaths over the lifetime of persons born between 2000 and 2030 in 98 low- and middle-income countries. Despite the vaccine being an important tool for hepatitis B prevention, there is suboptimal HBV vaccine coverage across EU/EEA countries. We, therefore, strongly welcome this initiative and trust it will be a significant step forward in Europes fight against cancer. We are pleased to contribute to this call for evidence by putting forward the recommendations of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) - our specialist member society. Please find the statement enclosed.

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Response to Revision of the Union legislation on blood, tissues and cells

7 Sept 2022

UEG Response to the EU Proposal for a Regulation on Blood, tissues and cells for medical treatments & therapies United European Gastroenterology (UEG) is a professional non-profit organization combining all the leading European medical specialists and national societies focusing on digestive health. Together, we act as the united and trusted voice of European Gastroenterology and take concerted efforts to learn more about digestive disease by prevention, research, diagnosis, cure, and raising awareness of their importance. UEG and its member societies broadly welcomes the Commission proposal for an EU regulation on standards of quality and safety for substances of human origin intended for human application, published on 14th July. As a participant to the online consultations held during the revision process, and having called for broadening the scope of the regulation to cover, in particular, intestinal microbiota, we believe the current proposal offers a robust and future-proof SoHO framework, which will facilitate the use of transformative advanced therapies. We focus our feedback below on human milk and on intestinal microbiota. Human Milk The Commission proposal considers also Human Milk as a SoHO. For extremely premature infants that cannot be fed with their mother’s own milk, the provision of donor human milk (DHM) is the preferred second enteral feeding choice as it reduces mortality and morbidity, compared to feeding preterm infant formula. The SoHO Regulation should clearly state that it covers only donated human milk but not the milk provided by a women to her biological or legal child. The administrative burden associated with DHM classification as SoHO should be proportionate to the low level of risk associated with its application. Disproportionate regulatory requirements for existing and future DHM services may markedly limit the availability of DHM for extremely premature infants. Certification of hospital-based human milk banks should proceed in a timely fashion and without additional charges to hospitals or milk bank users. While human milk is a substance of human origin, competent authorities overseeing human milk banks should be those that regulate either hospitals or food production/distribution, but not those involved in regulating interpersonal transfer of blood, cells, or tissue. Intestinal Microbiota The European Helicobacter and Microbiota Study Group (EHMSG) and the working group for Fecal Microbiota Therapy (FMT, or Intestinal Microbiota Therapy) support the proposed new regulation. Inclusion of Intestinal Microbiota in the regulation will have a positive effect on the safety and availability of Intestinal Microbiota Therapy for patients that may benefit from this new but generally accepted treatment approach. In addition, this new regulation will protect stool donors. With regard to (stool) donors, we would like to underline that donation (of stool) should be a voluntary act and should not become a subject of trade. The use of unpaid donors reduces the risk that applicants withhold information during the screening process. However, reimbursement of expenses is reasonable. The incorporation of the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EQDM) as expert body will ensure up to date quality and safety standards for recruitment and selection of donors, processing of FMT preparations, and storage, release and application of FMT preparations.

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Meeting with Sara Cerdas (Member of the European Parliament)

16 May 2022 · Digestive Health Group Event

Meeting with Romana Jerković (Member of the European Parliament)

28 Apr 2022 · Colorectal cancer

Meeting with Sarah Wiener (Member of the European Parliament)

1 Dec 2021 · Health Policy, Microbiome

Response to A European Health Data Space

3 Feb 2021

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Response to Setting of nutrient profiles

2 Feb 2021

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Response to Farm to Fork Strategy

12 Mar 2020

United European Gastroenterology (UEG) is a professional non-profit organization combining all the leading European medical specialists and national societies focusing on digestive health. Together, we act as the united and trusted voice of European Gastroenterology, promoting science, research, education, quality of care. We aim at reducing health inequalities across Europe. UEG stands ready to assist the EU institutions with medical and scientific expertise across all the key aspects addressed by the EU’s Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy. UEG welcomes the comprehensive approach within the F2F strategy. There is an urgent requirement across Europe for a considerable change in behaviors and attitudes towards sustainable food production and consumption. This cultural shift can effectively be achieved through a multi-pronged approach including strong regulatory intervention. Coherent EU and Member State plans and a whole-of-society approach is needed. We particularly support EU’s determination to introduce changes within the food system enabling EU citizens to lead healthy lifestyle regardless of social background. A multitude of digestive and liver diseases have been attributed to unhealthy diet, malnutrition and are consistently linked to obesity, digestive cancers, metabolic fatty liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), food allergies. Studies demonstrate that obesity can increase the risk of colorectal cancer by 50 percent, particularly in men. Healthy lifestyle choices including nutrition act as the most effective preventative measure against obesity and subsequent digestive diseases. Moreover, the effect of diet on digestive health goes beyond obesity and a healthy diet has a protective effect from several diseases. The difficulty we face is ensuring our citizens can make the right choices for their daily nutrition. We need the European Commission and national governments to act on initiatives to change the way in which we buy and consume food. This requires education on the consumer side but strong regulation on the producer side as well. Our aim should be to achieve a European-wide transition to healthy diets by 2030. This would require consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes to double, and consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar to be reduced by more than 50% over the next 10 years. As an organization representing the field of digestive health, we would like to draw your attention to the areas addressing healthy diets. UEG advise on a limited intake of ultra-processed foods, red meat (especially processed) and sugar sweetened drinks. With alarming trends in the levels of overweight and obese children, tackling pediatric sugar intake is an immediate public health priority. There is currently a strong consensus that industrial trans-fats should be completely avoided. The introduction of a comprehensive range of policies to limit the availability, affordability and acceptability of fast foods, while increasing the availability of healthy and minimally processed foods are desired. The measures include: - Policies that restrict the marketing of such foods, especially to children - Distinct classifications and front-of-pack labels on food products to more clearly indicate caloric and nutritional value based upon defined scientific targets for intakes of specific food groups - The taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages - The reformulation of food products and fiscal policies to reduce trans-fats, saturated fats and sugar content - Legislation to ban the use of industrial trans-fats - Subsidies to increase the intake of fruits and vegetables - Promoting a change in eating culture from ‘on the go’ fast food consumption to nutritious home-cooked meals enjoyed with families, partners and individuals. - Dietary habits are formed in childhood. Hence, educational programs for parents and education for children in school about healthy nutrition and cooking is desired.

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Response to Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan

2 Mar 2020

United European Gastroenterology (UEG) is a professional non-profit organisation combining all the leading European medical specialists and national societies focusing on digestive health. Together, we act as the united and trusted voice of European Gastroenterology, promoting science, research, education, quality of care and reduced health inequalities. As an organization representing the field of digestive health, we welcome the importance given to developing a Cancer Plan at EU-level and take this opportunity to draw attention to the growing threat posed by digestive cancers amongst the European population. Digestive cancers, including esophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver, small bowel or colon cancer, affect both men and women and are the leading cause of cancer-related death in Europe. They are the most common type of cancer in Europe among men and second most common in women after breast cancer. We salute the initiative of putting prevention at the heart of EU’s cancer agenda and focusing on lifestyle choices. There is strong evidence that many chronic digestive diseases are preventable and, therefore, a shift of focus from treatment to prevention is essential. Diet is one of the most important factors in the development and prevention of cancer. We, therefore, count on the F2F strategy to transform the food systems by limiting the consumption and production of unhealthy foods, reducing salt and sugar in processed foods and limiting the availability, affordability and acceptability of fast foods. Moreover, the Cancer Plan’s pillar on prevention should include measures aimed at reducing smoking prevalence and alcohol-related harm, as well as increasing physical activity - particularly important in the prevention of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is a major risk factor for liver cancer. We also support EU’s determination to tackle health inequalities from prevention to treatment. In this regard, we would like to draw your attention to the vast inequalities in colorectal cancer screening programmes design and participation across Europe. Evidence demonstrates that screening for colorectal cancer reduces incidence and mortality rates, therefore we call for the implementation of standardized population-based screening programmes for colorectal cancer in all Member States, together with regular updates of the European colorectal cancer screening guidelines and screening progress reports every two years. Furthermore, we welcome the consideration of broadening the scope of cancer screening and recommend the implementation of screening for viral hepatitis. Other digestive cancers, like gastric and oesophageal cancers, are characterized by a particularly bad prognosis (overall 5-year-survival not exceeding 25% and 10%, respectively). In this regard, we would like to focus future research projects on the harms and benefits of both gastric and oesophageal cancers screening programmes. In light of the acknowledged need to cover exiting knowledge gaps, we would like to bring into your attention the case of pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest cancer, with a 5 years survival of less than 10% and little progress for almost 50 years. Yet, pancreatic cancer receives less than 2% of all cancer research funding in Europe. To fill existing knowledge gaps, we strongly urge the EU, to increase funding into: pancreatic cancer research (basic science and clinical studies), environmental factors for cancer development, including micro environmental factors such as microbiota, as well as the establishment of prognostic and particularly predictive bio markers - where gastroenterologists play a crucial role due to access to early stages of digestive cancers. UEG, as a recognized leading authority for digestive health, stands ready to assist the EU institutions with medical expertise across all the key aspects addressed by the EU’s Cancer Plan, ranging from prevention to treatment.

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Meeting with Vytenis Andriukaitis (Commissioner) and

2 Mar 2017 · Towards a renewed EU Alcohol and Health Forum

Meeting with Paula Duarte Gaspar (Cabinet of Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis)

2 Jun 2015 · Co-operation on the management of chronic diseases, the burden of Gastroenterologic diseases. EU and UEG action.