A European health initiative

Your local medical centre is always a rich source of government propaganda, and I noticed some fine examples the other day, but this one stood out from the rest:

Did you know that the EU had assumed responsibility for our health?

I blogged about EuroNannying back in 2011. A quick visit to europa.eu shows that the Eurocrats are still expressing great concern for our youth:

They're looking after us grown-ups too, protecting us from harm-reduction products like e-cigarrettes and snus ('quit or die' seems to be their preferred approach, though in practice they're quite happy for you to be forever dependent on nicotine gums and patches, the officially sanctioned solution from Big Pharma):

[As ever, Christopher Snowdon's blog is the best to follow for such matters]

In typical style, EU ambitions in the field of public health are proudly displayed for all to see:

The Health and Consumers Directorate-General is pleased to present the Health-EU Portal (the official public health portal of the European Union) and the wide range of information and data on health-related issues and activities at both European and international level. The main objective of this thematic Portal is to provide European citizens with easy access to comprehensive information on Public Health initiatives and programmes at EU level. The portal is intended to help meet EU objectives in the Public Health field, it is an important instrument to positively influence behaviour and promote the steady improvement of public health in the 27 EU Member States.
...
The Portal is an initiative of the Community Public Health Programme 2003-2008 intended to permit greater involvement of individuals, institutions, associations, organisations and bodies in the health sector by facilitating consultation and participation. In this framework, attention is given to the right of the EU population to receive simple, clear and scientifically sound information about measures to protect health and prevent diseases. One of the main aims of the portal is to convey that citizens share responsibility for improving their health. Increased awareness of the different EU activities and programmes relating to Public Health will help the general public contribute to and support them.

The Policy is further explained on the page linked above:

The EU is required by its founding treaty to ensure that human health is protected as part of all its policies, and to work with the EU countries to improve public health, prevent human illness and eliminate sources of danger to physical and mental health.

The EU's strategy for protecting and improving human health is chiefly implemented by the health programme. It is one of several programmes to implement health policy at EU level.

The EU is a danger to my mental health and I hereby request that they disband forthwith. More likely, I'll find myself on somebody's list, to be locked away with all the other lunatics. What else but mental illness could explain such phenomena as 'climate change denial' ...