On 5 November 2024, the Healthy Lifestyles for Europe (HL4EU) Community Building Conference – Advancing Healthier Lifestyles Across Europe took place in Brussels. The successful conference brought together policymakers, industry leaders, and project partners to promote cross-sector collaboration for healthier lifestyles across Europe, underscoring the project’s vision, mission, and objectives.
The HL4EU project spans 30 months, during which a consortium of leading national and European organisations from the fitness, physical activity, outdoors, health, and mobility sectors is dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of cross-sectoral healthy lifestyle promotion. The project also addresses how to tackle the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and reduce health inequalities across Europe.
The event provided not only an opportunity to discuss the potential of physical activity in promoting healthy lifestyles and the need for cross-sectoral collaboration to shift from a curative to a preventive public health model but also to engage in dialogue on the European Commission’s Healthy Lifestyle 4 All campaign and the recent WHO report on physical inactivity among adults, which highlights that 31% of adults do not meet recommended levels of physical activity. The report also provides key recommendations to support Member States’ efforts in this area.
The diverse agenda featured experts from public health institutes, universities, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the European Commission, and the Council of the European Union. Topics included best practice examples from across Europe collected through the stakeholder platform, insights from the HL4All campaign, WHO recommendations on adult physical inactivity levels, the OECD’s work on cross-sectoral collaboration for disease prevention and health promotion, and strategies to reduce Europe’s cancer and NCD burden.
A highlight of the conference was a dedicated panel on cross-sectoral cooperation for healthy lifestyles, featuring Juana Willumsen (WHO), Kitti Almer (Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU), Stefano Pintus (DG EAC, European Commission), and Dr Ashley Ridout (Faculty of Sport & Exercise Medicine, UK). Each panellist shared their organisation’s approach to promoting healthy lifestyles and emphasised the critical importance of cross-sector collaboration. Ms Willumsen reminded attendees that “physical activity should become more and more important as we age,” while Dr Ridout emphasised that “physical activity must be embedded throughout our life,” given the current trend of physical inactivity and sedentarism.
In his closing remarks, Kai Troll, CEO of EuropeActive, emphasised that, “Regardless of the sector we represent, we are all promoting physical activity. Each of us should remember to keep promoting and embracing a healthier lifestyle in our personal lives too.”
A key takeaway from the discussions was the shared recognition of challenges related to data collection and policy fragmentation in health prevention. The panellists highlighted that cooperation among countries and sectors is essential to advance best practices and mobilise stakeholders. In addition, they raised awareness of the importance of urban planning in creating accessible spaces for community exercise and encouraging physical activity. The development of a stakeholder platform to identify and share good practices, along with the publication of a Call to Action, reflects the consortium’s commitment to gathering data and providing input for future policy development.
After these insightful discussions, participants had the opportunity to network and exchange further views on the importance of physical activity and health prevention.
