Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge
Regional Director for Europe, WHO
The question facing European governments isn’t whether they can afford to invest in health. It’s whether other priorities are achievable without it.
There’s a question I hear in almost every ministerial conversation these days: can we still afford to invest in health? The better question: what happens to everything else — security, growth, stability — if we don’t?
European military spending rose 14% in 2025 to $864 billion — the sharpest annual increase since the Cold War.1
Health systems: Europe’s first line of defence
But military readiness depends on something that never appears in a defence budget: a population that’s physically fit, mentally resilient and not spending a third of its working life managing preventable illnesses. Health isn’t separate from security — it’s part of its foundation.
Whether facing pandemics, extreme weather events or conflict, the speed and strength of a country’s response depend on what’s already in place.
Health isn’t separate from security
— it’s part of its foundation.
Investing in health is crucial for the economy
By 2050, more than one in three Europeans will be over 60.2 Policies designed to keep people working longer, integrate new populations and sustain pension systems all fail if population health is poor. Healthy ageing isn’t a social aspiration, but an economic precondition.
Chronic disease, stress-related absence and long-term sickness already cost European economies billions annually. Cutting investment in health doesn’t protect an economy — it erodes it.
This is the argument in our new five-year strategy adopted by all WHO European Region Member States. The central shift is deliberate: health as an enabler of every other policy goal, not a sector competing against them.
The interventions that deliver this aren’t speculative. Health taxes on tobacco and alcohol cut disease rates while raising revenue. Clean air policies reduce emissions and hospital admissions. Strong primary care keeps people productive while reducing pressure on emergency systems. These aren’t trade-offs, but rather, the same investment achieving multiple returns.
Europe’s challenge isn’t a shortage of good ideas, but the political will to treat health as a strategy, not charity. The countries that make that shift first will be the most resilient, competitive, and hardest to break in a crisis.
[1] SIPRI. (2026). Global military spending rise continues as European and Asian expenditures surge. https://tinyurl.com/mrxuww7d.
[2] Eurostat. (2026). Population structure and ageing. https://tinyurl.com/3cht85th.
