In total in Europe, 14 million children are overweight and three million of them are obese. About 90% of children in Europe eat less than the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables per day.
The rising obesity trends across Europe call for action at local, regional, national and European levels, and across all policy areas, such as social policy, consumer policy and research.
Public Health Programme
Under the Public Health Programme, the European Commission funds a number of projects aimed at collecting data on obesity, nutrition and physical activity, as well as projects aimed at promoting healthy diets.
EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health
In March 2005, Commissioner Kyprianou launched the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. The platform brings together industry and consumer groups, health experts and political groups, and aims to come up with concrete actions designed to contain or reverse current trends and to tackle Europe’s obesity epidemic.
The Platform will consider voluntary action in the fields of consumer information and education, marketing and advertising, promotion of physical activity, composition of food and portions sizes.
Green Paper on the Promotion of Healthy Diets and Physical Activity
The European Commission published in December 2005 a Green Paper on the Promotion of Healthy Diets and Physical Activity to begin an extensive public consultation on how to reduce the prevalence of associated chronic diseases in the EU. In the light of the results of the consultation the Commission will consider any measures that may need to be proposed as well as the instruments for their implementation.