The European Commission will this year continue to focus its efforts on prevention, aiming to keep citizens away from hospital, Commissioner for Health John Dalli said yesterday.

One of the main priorities is the new directive on tobacco products with a proposal to tackle crucial issues such as flavourings, additives, points of sale and packaging.

Mr Dalli was addressing a press conference during which he gave an overview of the activities related to his portfolio of health and consumer affairs in 2011 and the priorities for this year.

He said that last year the Commission focused on “wellness rather than disease”, whereby it took measures to keep people well and out of hospital beds. This, he said, was key to health sustainability in the future.

With this aim in mind, the focus was on policies that pushed people towards a lifestyle which kept them in good health.

Mr Dalli spoke about the Cross Border Healthcare Directive, which made receiving treatment abroad no longer a problem. This directive brought with it clear and coherent rules on cross-border healthcare, the recognition of prescriptions by different member states and closer health cooperation between them.

He referred to efforts for safer medicines to be sold across Europe and vigilance to ensure that proper procedures were in place to generate fast notifications throughout the bloc if a medicine was found to have harmful effects. The recent breast implants controversy showed that the EU must remain vigilant and must always react when such unacceptable situations arise, he said.

Another consumer protection measure was the offer of online dispute resolution for products purchased online.

“This year will be a very busy one, with a number of proposals to be tabled in the coming months. These include an Animal Welfare Strategy, which will be presented this week,” he said.