Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the implementation of the Council Recommendation on promoting health-enhancing physical activity across sectors

The Council requested the Commission to report on progress on implementing the Council Recommendation on promoting health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA) across sectors, adopted in November 2013, every three years, and on its added value. This progress report covers the 2014-2016 period.

Most people in Europe do not reach the minimum levels of physical activity recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). In particular, people with low socioeconomic backgrounds, minority ethnic groups, and people with disabilities are not physically active enough. EU Member States acknowledged the need to boost HEPA policies at national level and recognised the benefits of action at EU level, which led to the adoption of the Council Recommendation on HEPA in 2013, based on a proposal from the Commission. More recently, the Council adopted conclusions on the promotion of motor skills, physical and sport activities for young children. It invited Member States to raise awareness of the benefits of regular physical activity from early childhood onwards and to encourage children to be more active by implementing cross-sector policies, for example in the education, youth and health sectors.

The Council Recommendation encourages EU Member States to work across sectors and to involve policy areas such as sport, health, education, environment and transport in their national strategies and action plans. It also encourages Member States to cooperate closely with each other and the Commission by regularly exchanging information and best practices. In addition, the Council recognised that more reliable and timely information on the situation across the EU was essential to support national and regional policy-making, and therefore proposed a monitoring framework based on the EU Physical Activity Guidelines (‘the HEPA monitoring framework’).

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