Europe's brain health needs a serious coordination plan

Brain health is the EU’s leading cause of disability, yet it’s among its least-supported fields. But now, Europe’s ongoing health and research reforms could mark a turning point for brain health. The European Brain Council (EBC) and MEP Tomislav Sokol say the EU must now build the investment, coordination and collaboration framework to translate this momentum into real progress.

“Advancing neuroscience innovation requires a multifaceted approach that includes funding, collaboration and supportive regulations to build an entire ecosystem where innovation can flourish,” Frédéric Destrebecq, executive director of EBC, told Euractiv. That vision depends on connecting current reforms into a coherent European framework.

Legislative momentum

According to Destrebecq, “current EU legislative reforms present a unique opportunity to reposition brain health as a driver of innovation, competitiveness and societal development.”

“As Europe seeks greater strategic autonomy in a rapidly shifting and increasingly competitive global landscape, marked by geopolitical tensions and a pivot toward security and defence, investing in brain research and innovation becomes essential to sustaining its leading role in the life science ecosystem.”

The EBC says ongoing reforms, including the Pharmaceutical Package, the Life Sciences Strategy and preparations for FP10 within the next Multiannual Financial Framework, must be leveraged to integrate brain health as a cross-cutting priority.

MEP Sokol adds that “Europe’s forthcoming Biotech Act has the potential to reshape the continent’s position in life science innovation, with breakthroughs expected from gene and RNA-based therapies, cell therapies, and AI-powered diagnostics.”

Innovation unlocking breakthroughs

The EBC stresses that progress in brain health will depend on transforming how Europe understands, detects and treats brain disorders.

For the Council, prevention and early intervention are key. “For too long, care for neurological and mental conditions has focused on treating late-stage symptoms, intervening only after initial damage has occurred. The future lies in prevention and early intervention, catching diseases before they progress and working on novel therapeutic options,” says Destrebecq.

He adds that a new generation of technologies is supporting these shifts. “Gene therapies are moving from experimental to reality, while digital therapeutics and responsible neurotechnology also hold enormous potential for brain health and wellbeing.”

Such advances, the EBC says, require more than funding: “They depend on a supportive ecosystem, one that supports and connects researchers, clinicians, patients, industry and policymakers under a coherent European strategy.”

From opportunity to action

Europe must now match its scientific strength with policy ambition, a goal echoed in Parliament by Sokol, rapporteur for the Critical Medicines Act. Sokol says reforms must translate into real progress for neurological and mental health conditions that have long faced underinvestment and access challenges.

“The Pharmaceutical Package can become a real catalyst for innovation in neurological and mental health areas that have long faced underinvestment and slow progress,” he says.

By modernising the rules around unmet medical need, Sokol argues, the reform could finally open the door for new research.

“The reform has the potential to stimulate research into complex neurological and psychiatric conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis or severe depression, all fields where scientific challenges are high and returns on investment uncertain.”

Sokol says the reform also aims to correct inequalities between Member States, ensuring that access follows innovation.

“Parliament’s position introduces a clear obligation: when a member state requests it, a marketing authorisation holder must apply for pricing and reimbursement and supply that market, once the decision is positive,” he explains. “This ensures that smaller or less commercially attractive markets are not left behind, while avoiding the unrealistic expectation that companies must automatically supply every member state, even those where there are no patients in need.”

“This approach safeguards access for patients in all parts of Europe while recognising the specific challenges of rare and highly specialised treatments,” he adds.

Combined with faster regulatory pathways and better use of real-world evidence and digital tools, the new Pharmaceutical Package could, he says, both stimulate much-needed innovation in brain health therapies and ensure that those innovations reach patients across the Union, not just in the largest or wealthiest Member States.

Securing supply through the Critical Medicines Act

Sokol says that the Critical Medicines Act is designed to ensure security of supply for patients across Europe.

“As the Rapporteur for the Critical Medicines Act, I am determined to deliver a framework that ensures Europe is far better prepared to prevent and manage shortages of critical medicines, including those used for neurological and mental health conditions,” he says.

Supply interruptions, he warns, “can have severe consequences for patients, from triggering seizures to causing relapse or hospitalisation.”

“The Critical Medicines Act recognises that supply security is not just an industrial objective but a cornerstone of public health and patient trust.”

He adds that long-term investment will be essential to sustain these reforms.

“The idea with MFF is not to create a broad framework that risks diluting priorities, but to ensure that health, and brain health in particular, receives clear, predictable and ambitious funding.”

“That is why I will fight for a strong and separate budget line for health in the next Multiannual Financial Framework,” he says. “If everything is treated as a priority, then nothing truly is.”

For Sokol, the rationale is simple: “Health should be seen as an investment, not a cost, because a healthy population drives innovation, productivity and resilience. Only a healthy Europe can be a competitive Europe.”

Building Europe’s coordination plan

While legislative reforms are key to fostering innovation, manufacturing and access, the European Brain Council says that brain health still lacks a unifying framework to connect these separate efforts.

The forthcoming European Coordination Plan for the Brain is designed to fill this gap by aligning EU legislative, research, and public health initiatives, and beyond, ensuring that brain health is addressed across all relevant policy areas.

“Addressing brain health across the life course requires a holistic vision beyond public health, covering education, youth, social environment, workplace, etc.,” the Council says.

“A European Coordination Plan for the Brain must maximise existing initiatives, reduce duplication of efforts and rely on the expertise of the entire brain community.”

The plan will complement the forthcoming European Partnership for Brain Health (EP Brain Health), a co-funded initiative between EU Member States and the European Commission under Horizon Europe that will become “the biggest multinational effort specifically dedicated to funding brain research in the world.”

“The EP Brain Health is one key instrument of funding but, more importantly, of ecosystem generation in the brain space,” the Council explained.

“Adopting an overarching EU Coordination Plan for Brain Health would also allow to complement the research-focused EP Brain Health and allow for better streamlining of resources and reduced duplication of efforts,” the EBC says. “It would foster collaboration on workforce training, equitable access to care and the translation of scientific progress into tangible societal benefits.”

Towards a coordinated European approach

Together, the European Brain Council’s roadmap and Sokol’s legislative priorities reflect a shared vision: to close Europe’s brain health investment gap, strengthen the EU’s resilience and competitiveness, and ensure that innovation and access reforms deliver measurable benefits for patients across the Union. Both agree that the EU’s success will depend on turning policy momentum into lasting infrastructure, funding and trust.

(BM)