Joint Appeal by Members of the European Parliament and of European National
Parliaments Urging the European Commission to Support European Mental Health
Strategy
Good mental health is an integral part of the individual well-being and provides a strong
foundation to ensure that all European citizens have fulfilling and productive lives.
For the past decades, mental ill-health has been on the rise worldwide. Even before the Covid-
19 pandemic, 1 in 6
1
people were diagnosed with a mental health issue and the pandemic has
only further exacerbated the magnitude of this problem. Given the compounded effects of
the pandemic, the EU will soon face a mental health crisis.
Poor mental health not only negatively affects the individual, but it also leads to significant
economic costs due to lower productivity, social benefits and health spending. According to
the OECD, the pre-pandemic overall costs of mental health already reached 600 billion euros
in the EU
2
.
Clearly, good mental health of the population yields benefits in both human and economic
terms.
And yet, the EU is not taking its mental health agenda forward.
We, members of the European Parliament and of the European National Parliaments, stand
with our societies and urge the European Commission to develop a comprehensive
European
Mental Health Strategy,
taking into account the cross-sectorial impacts of different policies
on mental health.
The European Parliament already expressed the need for increased engagement of the EU in
the area of Mental Health in several of its resolutions
3
and the Council Conclusions of the
Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council include a call specifically for
the development of such a strategy
4
.
Beyond that, to raise awareness of the importance of good mental health and to consider and
address it throughout the policy-making process, we also call for the designation of European
Year for Mental Health.
1
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2020/658213/IPOL_BRI(2020)658213_EN.p
df
2
Ibid
3
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT%2BTA%2BP6-TA-2009-
0063%2B0%2BDOC%2BXML%2BV0//EN,
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-
2020-0054_EN.pdf
4
https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-11164-2019-INIT/en/pdf