Promoting physical activity as a preventative healthcare measure has been listed as a key priority in the European Union's five-year strategy.

The EU Work Plan for sport (2021-2024), published this month, lists three priorities for the EU's work.

One of these is "promotion of participation in health-enhancing physical activity". To achieve this, the plan calls for cross-sectoral cooperation with relevant institutions.

The plan was published following a meeting of the Council of European Ministers of Sport.

In a statement, the group said: "We must increase participation in sport and health-enhancing physical activity in order to promote an active and environment-friendly lifestyle, social cohesion and active citizenship.

"A guiding objective is to ensure through, cross-sectoral cooperation, the awareness of other EU policy domains of the important contribution that physical activity can make to Europe’s socially and environmentally sustainable growth, digitalisation as well as recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and future resilience, as well as to achieve the SDGs."

The plan also calls for increased investment in physical activity and outlines the possibility of utilising EU funds that aren't, at the moment, targeting this – such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility, React-EU, the Structural Funds and other EU funding programmes.

Other areas identified in the strategy include gender equality, sustainability and the development and promotion of co-operation between EU institutions, member states and stakeholders. 

To download and read the full document, click here.