Sustainable Development Goal on Health (SDG3): The opportunity to make EU health a priority

European health systems face growing, common challenges: rising healthcare costs; an ageing population; a shortage of health professionals; and inequality in access to quality healthcare. Addressing these problems at EU level is a challenge due to the Union’s fragmented approach and the fact that health is still a competence of the member states. This is where the Sustainable Development Goal on Health (SDG3) can provide a solution. In this Discussion Paper Paula Franklin calls for a better integration of the SDG3 in the EU’s work on health, as it provides an overarching framework to coordinate the numerous EU actions on health, highlights links between health and other policy areas, and gives the Union greater leverage to achieve its overall goal of ensuring that every EU citizen has access to affordable quality healthcare.