The first EU Health Programme ran between 2003 and 2007, and was the key instrument underpinning Community's (Commission's) overarching health strategy.
The general objectives of the First Health Programme were:
- To improve information and knowledge for the development of public health
- To enhance the capability of responding rapidly and in a coordinated fashion to health threats
- To promote health and prevent disease through addressing health determinants across all policies and activities.
As such, the Programme also contributed to the following broader objectives programme:
- Ensuring a high level of human health protection in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities, through the promotion of an integrated and intersectoral health strategy
- Tackling inequalities in health
- Encouraging cooperation between Member States in the areas covered by Article 152 of the Treaty.
Funding available for the Programme across 2003-2008 was EUR 312 million.