Our communication and dissemination partner, Old-Continent, attended the Mental Health Intergroup event at the European Parliament on May 5th. Under the umbrella of the Mental Health week, this political dialogue, moderated by MEP Maria Walsh, brought together MEPs, civil society representatives, psychologists, frontline practitioners and policy experts to reflect on the EU’s evolving role in mental health. The discussions focused on the legacy of the EU Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health, barriers to access, workplace conditions, stigma, and the future of EU-level action, all topics dear to the GreenME Project.
The discussions offered a broad overview of both the progress made under the EU Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health and the challenges that remain to ensure real impact across Member States.
Stefan Schreck (DG SANTE) highlighted significant progress, including over €1.2 billion in funding, the identification of promising practices across Member States, and improved coordination between national systems, while also underlining a structural limitation: as health policy remains a national competence, the EU’s role is largely supportive rather than regulatory. At the same time, concrete gaps in access to care and persistent resource constraints on the ground highlighted the disconnect between policy ambition and lived realities.
Building on this, MEP Nicolae Ştefănuță called for a more binding European framework, notably advocating for guaranteed access to reimbursed therapy sessions across all Member States to ensure equitable access to care. MEP Lukas Sieper emphasised the structural nature of mental health challenges, pointing to discrimination and intersecting inequalities, particularly affecting LGBTQI+ communities and young people, as key drivers that must be addressed through more comprehensive and inclusive policies.
As mental health gains traction as a cross-cutting EU priority, there is a growing need for solutions that are evidence-based, and socially inclusive. GreenME directly contributes to this shift by exploring how nature-based approaches can support mental health while addressing broader environmental and social determinants.
A clear way forward emerges while the EU has laid important foundations, the current approach remains insufficient to ensure lasting impact. Moving towards a more structured, ambitious and binding European framework, supported by measurable objectives and stronger integration of social determinants, appears as the next necessary step.