Following a request by the Spanish EU Presidency, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) today adopted an opinion entitled "Measures to Improve Mental Health."

The opinion includes a recommendation on psychedelic therapies:

“Regarding psychedelic therapies, which are emerging as a new class of groundbreaking treatments for conditions like severe depression, PTSD and alcohol use disorder, more research is needed in a controlled therapeutical setting. The EESC recognises the potential of these treatments and asks for devoted funding for promoting research, development and eventual commercialisation of them.”

This marks the first instance where the potential of psychedelic therapies has been officially recognized within a document of an EU institution.

PAREA expresses gratitude to the EESC and the authors of the opinion for their work to improve the mental health and wellbeing of the EU citizens and for recognizing the area of psychedelic novel medicines.

Further, PAREA has formulated a position paper that outlines EU research priorities in the domain of psychedelic science that can be accessed here. Moreover, in an Open Access Government editorial, we have recently called for “a new focus in the EU’s mental health care approach” (see here).

In other key recommendations, the EESC:

• Supports the development of rights-based, person-centred, recovery-oriented, community-based mental health systems that prioritise the person's empowerment and active participation in their own recovery with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life of people with mental health conditions;

• Recommends that the EU Comprehensive Plan on Mental Health is swiftly transposed in an EU Mental Health Strategy which has a timeframe, funding defined responsibilities and progress indicators;

• Highlights the importance of considering the influence of socio-economic and environmental factors on mental health within the European Semester process and emphasizes the need for increased investments in the health sector as part of National Recovery and Resilience Plans;

• Calls upon the EC to declare 2024 as the European Year of Mental Health.