To tackle obesity, the European Commission set up a EU platform for action on diet, physical activity and health. Since March 2005, the platform has been bringing together industry, consumer groups and health experts to find ways to combat obesity. The emphasis is on self-regulation and voluntary commitments from the food and drink industry. In the World Health Organisation (WHO) European ministerial conference on counteracting obesity in November 2006, health ministers signed a European Charter pledging to place obesity high up on the European public health and political agendas and to halt the rise in obesity by 2015.
Campaigners argue that voluntary agreements are useless and Europe must formally recognise obesity as a chronic disease and help sufferers to find ways of living with the condition.
Many medical professionals accept that to kick-start obesity treatment, the patient has to be removed from the temptations of daily life by going to a hospital, clinic, spa or weight-loss centre. Unless obesity is dealt with now, Europe will see people dying ten to twenty years before their parents. Unfortunately The various EU countries, some in dire economic straits, have no money and little intent to do anything more than offer advice.
To overcome this problem it will require the creation of formal healthcare insurance policies to address what is now a EU-wide epidemic. At present only Portugal recognizes obesity as a chronic disease which is covered by insurance.
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