Small Member States Initiative
Given that small Member States have healthcare challenges that may be similar to larger countries, but still require separate attention, key stakeholders from each country decided to come together to jointly address these challenges.
Small Member States are defined as countries in Europe with a population of less than 3 million people. This network includes eight countries:
- Estonia
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Slovenia
- Malta
- Cyprus
- Iceland
The aim of this network is to also strengthen the influence of small Member States in Europe, to make them heard and to bring opportunities to support smaller countries in various European health projects.
A major problem is the unsuitability of accreditation systems for small Member States. Therefore, at present, there are no comprehensive cancer centres accredited by the OECI in these countries. Three small countries have accredited cancer centers, but in order not to fall behind the rest of Europe, we need to work together to ensure that small member states also have comprehensive cancer centers that provide the best treatment for patients.
The first face-to-face meeting took place in September 2024 in the Embassy of Estonia in Brussels.
The next online meeting is planned for spring 2025, where we will discuss in more detail how we move forward, which topics require immediate attention, and how we will formalize the network. At the moment, we are focusing on cancer, but in the future there is an opportunity to transfer the solutions to other diseases.
ESTCAN points of contact: Kadi-Liis Veiman, kadi-liis.veiman@ut.ee and Anni Lepland, anni.lepland@ut.ee
