A milestone for public health in Europe: launching EuroHealthNet’s TWIG on Commercial Determinants of Health
In Europe, the case for action is clear: NCDs account for around 90% of all deaths, and commercial determinants are estimated to contribute to approximately 2.7 million deaths each year (about a quarter of all deaths).
No single actor can address this alone. Governments, public health institutes, health promotion agencies, researchers, and civil society need to work in a coordinated way to reduce health-harming commercial drivers and protect population health.
With that urgency in mind, EuroHealthNet is determined to act and proud to launch a new Thematic Working Group (TWIG) on the Commercial Determinants of Health (CDoH) — a concrete step to strengthen collective capacity and collect evidence for both policy and practice, with a specific focus on the perspective of public health institutes in Europe.
Why now?
- Increasingly, commercial practices influence health through product design, pricing, marketing, availability and digital environments. These practices can have a health-neutral, health-promoting or health-harming influence
- Health-harming dynamics are accelerating the burden of preventable non-communicable diseases and widening health inequalities. The potential positive contributions of the private actors, on the other hand, are often overlooked and could be facilitated more
- National public health and health promotion institutes need stronger, more agile capacities to respond.
The aims of the new TWIG
With this new TWIG, EuroHealthNet aims to build shared policy intelligence and practical tools for action, strengthen institutional capacity across countries, and support the translation of CDoH evidence into policy and implementation at EU, national and local levels.
Interested in joining or knowing more?
Please let us know by sending an email to Rebecca-Evelyn Papp.
The TWIG is co-led by the Trimbos Institute and Santé publique France, with Sciensano and the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) among the first participating institutes. Wider engagement will continue from February 2026 onward.
We look forward to working with partners across Europe to advance more preventive, equitable and resilient public health systems.
