Of the 6 WHO regions, the European Region is the most severely affected by noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Excess body weight (body mass index (BMI) >25); excessive consumption of energy, saturated fats, trans fats, sugar and salt; as well as low consumption of vegetables, fruits and whole grains are leading risk factors. In 46 of the 53 countries of the Region, more than 50% of the population is living with overweight or obesity.

Overweight and obesity are also highly prevalent among children and adolescents across the European Region. Overall, 1 in 3 children is living with overweight or obesity (based on WHO definitions) according to the latest data from countries participating in the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI). The European Food and Nutrition Action Plan 2015–2020 was developed to tackle these issues head-on to reduce the burden of preventable diet-related NCDs, obesity and all other forms of malnutrition still prevalent in the Region.

Objectives of the Action Plan

The Action Plan encourages action in a range of policy areas through a whole-of-government, health-in-all-policies approach. The goal is to improve food system governance and overall quality of the population's diet and nutrition to ultimately promote health and well-being by:

• creating healthy food and drink environments;
• promoting the gains of a healthy diet throughout life, especially for the most vulnerable groups;
• reinforcing health systems to promote healthy diets;
• supporting surveillance, monitoring, evaluation and research; and
• strengthening governance, alliances and networks to ensure a health-in-all policies approach.

Priority actions

Priority actions include restrictions on the marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages to children, use of easy-to-understand front-of-pack labelling, and reformulation of food products to improve nutritional composition, such as through salt, saturated fat and sugar reduction. Notably, the Action Plan calls for a “trans-fat free Europe”, to be achieved through policies that ban or virtually eliminate trans fats from the food supply.

The Action Plan also signals a renewed effort to promote good nutrition among infants and children, including through the promotion and protection of exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months and the provision of healthy food in school settings. Finally, recognizing the importance of addressing the needs of people who are already overweight or obese, nutrition counselling and body weight management is also recommended in primary health care.

WHO/Europe supports individual Member States and coordinates international work to implement the Action Plan.

The Action Plan is aligned with the global policy frameworks for nutrition and for the prevention and control of NCDs which were available at the time of development, notably the Comprehensive Implementation Plan on Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition; the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases 2013–2020; and the voluntary global targets emerging from these global processes.

The new European Programme of Work 2020–2025 sets out a vision of how WHO/Europe can support countries in the European Region to better meet their citizens’ health expectations. The Action Plan aligns the work of WHO/Europe with the Triple Billion targets of the WHO Thirteenth General Programme of Work 2019–2023, while supporting countries in their commitments to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Rome Declaration on Nutrition (in English) (PDF, 200 KB)