EU health and animal welfare commissioner Olivér Várhelyi has visited Brno in Czechia for the opening of a new EU-funded cancer prevention centre at the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute.
He delivered opening remarks at Tuesday’s ceremony alongside Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alena Schillerová, and Health Minister Adam Vojtěch, the European Commission informed.
The centre received more than €20 million from the Czech Recovery and Resilience Plan, funded through the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility.
The facility is part of NextGenerationEU, an EU programme set up after the Covid-19 pandemic to support member states’ recovery.
Czechia has so far received €6.77 billion — more than three-quarters of its €8.75 billion allocation under the plan.
Funding and wider cancer work in the EU
The new centre is expected to increase its annual patient capacity by 20% using new facilities for supportive cancer care, the Commission said.
Várhelyi also held a bilateral meeting with Babiš on “key health and food safety issues” and EU support for public health standards.
The visit took place during European Week Against Cancer, held from 25 to 31 May.
Cancer is estimated to lead to an estimated 2.7 million new cases and 1.3 million deaths in the EU in 2024.
More than €2.7 billion has been invested under Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan in prevention, early detection, treatment and care, and measures to improve quality of life for patients.
