The European Commission has released the 2026 European Semester Spring Package. The package analyses the key economic and social challenges across the EU and offers policy guidance to Member States with the aim of boosting competitiveness, securing strategic autonomy, increasing resilience, and strengthening preparedness, while maintaining fiscal sustainability.
To that effect, the Commission has adopted proposals for country-specific recommendations (CSRs), promoting reforms and investments aligned with EU priorities.
Country specific recommendations related to healthcare have been addressed to 16 Member States, ranging from access to and affordability of healthcare, primary healthcare and prevention, to healthcare workforce.
The recitals specifying the CSRs stress further these healthcare-related challenges, while also underscoring the need to improve digital health literacy and quality data, in order to reap all the potential benefits from healthcare digitalisation.
Proposed healthcare country specific recommendations
Bulgaria
Strengthen effectiveness and accessibility of the health system, including by reallocating resources from hospital-based towards outpatient care, reducing out-of-pocket payments and addressing shortages and uneven distribution of health professionals across the country.
Estonia
Improve accessibility and affordability of healthcare and long-term care, including to address regional disparities, by ensuring funding.
Ireland
Continue efforts in implementing cost effectiveness measures in the health system while accelerating the transition towards universal and accessible primary healthcare.
Greece
Promote access to quality and affordable healthcare by strengthening primary healthcare, tackling shortages and geographical imbalances of nurses and doctors, and reducing out-of-pocket payments.
Spain
Improve access to healthcare by increasing the capacities of primary care and long-term care, addressing workforce shortages and reducing waiting times. Address regional disparities in access to opportunities and services, especially in areas facing rapid depopulation, while increasing efficiencies that create fiscal space to address increasing spending pressures.
Croatia
Balance the geographical distribution of health workers and facilities, invest in ehealth, and strengthen prevention.
Italy
Improve timely access to affordable healthcare, also by tackling shortages in key health professions.
Latvia
Strengthen the adequacy and accessibility of the health system to improve health outcomes, including by providing adequate human and financial resources, broadening the statutory benefits package, reducing out-of-pocket payments, and strengthening preventive health measures.
Lithuania
Provide adequate financing for healthcare, social protection and general public services, and improve the funding models of social services and healthcare institutions.
Hungary
Improve access to quality healthcare and long-term care, in particular preventive and primary care services.
Austria
[…] improving the fiscal sustainability of the healthcare, long-term care and pension systems, by, among other things, streamlining hospital infrastructure, improving the cost-effectiveness of healthcare and long-term care, strengthening digitalisation and disease prevention to foster expenditure control. […]
Portugal
Ensure equal access to quality healthcare, particularly by addressing the shortages of healthcare staff, while preserving the sustainability of the National Health Service.
Romania
Reduce poverty and social exclusion risks by extending social protection and improving its effectiveness, including through better access to quality services, focusing on primary and preventive healthcare, long-term care, social, educational and employment services, in particular for disadvantaged groups, while maintaining fiscal sustainability.
Slovenia
Further improve the non-wage working conditions, particularly in the healthcare, social and long-term care and teaching sectors.
Slovakia
Improve primary care provision, especially for vulnerable people, and expand preventive healthcare measures. Strengthen the resilience and fiscal sustainability of the health and long-term care systems and ensure affordable and quality long-term care, in particular by further expanding community-based services.
Finland
Continue improving the efficiency of the social and healthcare services while pursuing efforts to enhance access to services, including elderly care.
Source
https://health.ec.europa.eu/document/download/8e5433f8-269e-46c4-9d84-88358434da57_en?filename=hspa_healthcare_csr_en.pdf https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/sante/newsletter-archives/76067
Photo: EC – Audiovisual Service
Producer: CE – Service audiovisuel Photographer: Aurore Martignoni Copyright European Union, 2026
