For the millions of people across Europe living with respiratory allergy, asthma, COPD and other lung diseases, lung health is shaped by far more than a diagnosis. The air they breathe, how quickly their condition is diagnosed, access to treatment, rehabilitation and long-term support all influence their health and quality of life.
Yet in Europe, these priorities are too often addressed separately. Air quality, tobacco control, healthcare, research and environmental policy each play an important role in improving lung health, but they rarely form part of one coordinated strategy. For patients, however, they are all part of the same reality.
This is why the European Lung Health Group (ELHG) is calling for a European Lung Health Plan. Bringing together patient organisations and healthcare professionals, the Group is calling for a coordinated approach to lung health across Europe. As a member of the ELHG, EFA highlights the need to consider lung health as a cross-cutting policy priority rather than a collection of separate challenges.
In 2025, governments adopted the first-ever World Health Assembly Resolution on Lung Health, recognising the need to strengthen prevention, diagnosis, treatment and long-term care through a more integrated approach. It marked an important commitment. The next challenge is making sure that commitment leads to tangible improvements for people living with respiratory diseases.
A European Lung Health Plan would provide the framework for that. Rather than creating new policies, it would connect existing ones and bring together action on prevention, clean air, tobacco and nicotine control, respiratory infections, earlier diagnosis, equitable access to treatment, pulmonary rehabilitation, research, innovation, investment and meaningful patient involvement.
It would also recognise that many of the decisions that shape lung health are made outside the health sector. Housing, transport, workplaces, climate and environmental policy all influence the air people breathe and, ultimately, their respiratory health.
Europe already has the expertise, the evidence and growing political momentum with the WHA Resolution. What it lacks is a framework that brings these efforts together under a shared vision.
To support this conversation, the European Lung Health Group has developed a new infographic outlining why Europe needs a European Lung Health Plan and the priorities it should include.
Learn more in the new infographic.