#eph2025 | Caroline Costongs

A far-right politician recently told me that “public health is a political ideology – it is a recipe for expanding government control over people’s lives”. I used this quote to kick-start the 4th plenary session of the #EPH2025, organised by EuroHealthNet on the political and commercial determinants of health. It shows the reality we are now facing: that even public health — which is evidence-based, and inclusive — is being reframed as a political ideology, and under threat. This plenary session came in very timely. I am grateful to Sandro Galea and Anna Gilmore for their inspiring keynotes as well as to Mika Salminen, Dora Gudrun Gudmundsdottir and MP Aki Linden for their excellent insights on how public health can navigate political and commercial challenges and what tools and approaches are available to us. Public health is about power. But we are not powerless, and we shouldn’t shy away from politics. As the public health community, we need to move beyond describing problems and formulating policy recommendations, but also analyse the political arena in which the evidence and recommendations 'land'. We also need to keep discussing the political and commercial determinants of health and building our collective capacities to respond. Join us! A big thanks to EUPHA - European Public Health Association and to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) for organising the EPH Conference in Helsinki so well Charlotte Marchandise, Tit Albreht, Ilmo Keskimäki, and others and to the support of Alison Maassen, Monika Kosinska, walter ricciardi, Yvette Shajanian Zarneh, Dorota Sienkiewicz, David Hargitt

2025 EPH Conference Helsinki Statement