Citizens' Dialogue in Potsdam with Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis

Vytenis Andriukaitis and Martina Münch, Brandenburg‘s Minister for Science, Research, and Culture held a passionate Citizens’ Dialogues with young researchers and students on the Health Campus of the Potsdam University, where IT engineers
and medical doctors are looking for new solutions in the department of Digital Health together. 

Both stage partners replied to questions from students of the institute, 
which covered a broad range from the possibility of an EU-wide health insurance system to instruments, such as taxation, to change people’s life styles. 

The minister pointed to an ageing society in Germany and the growing numbers of civilization-affiliated illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, as challenges Commissioner Andriukaitis agreed with. He referred to the EU-strategy of the ‘four Ps‘: ‘prevention, promotion, protection and participation.’ 

The lively debate also touched upon the direct impact of demography on the health sector. In the EU, over four million nurses are lacking and many practitioners and pharmacists are getting old without finding successors, in particular outside metropolitan areas.

Hence, not only is better planning of the workforce needed, but also migration from other parts of the world. 

Closing the Dialogue, Commissioner Andriukaitis encouraged the students to exercise their right to vote in the upcoming European elections, and to seize their opportunities in a European Union guaranteeing the freedom to move.