Open Letter: A call for EU Funding
What’s the issue?
For the past three years, CCI Europe has received vital EU funding through operating grants, funding that has helped cover our core costs, strengthen our capacity, and expand the support we offer to our members across Europe.
These grants have been a cornerstone of CCI Europe’s work, enabling us to represent childhood cancer patients, survivors, and their families effectively, actively, and independently at both national and EU levels.
But now, that support is at risk.
The European Commission has yet to publish the 2025 call for operating grant proposals, and with no explanation. This omission puts at risk the sustainability of CCI Europe’s work and that of many other civil society organisations working to improve healthcare across Europe.
To urge immediate action, CCI Europe has sent an Open Letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen co-signed by our member organisations and their suborganisations, representing parents, patients, and survivors from across the continent.
What does the letter say?
In this letter, we:
- Call for the immediate publication of the 2025 operating grant call under the EU4Health Work Programme;
- Request full-year grants for healthcare-focused civil society organisations;
- Highlight the real-world impact these funds have had, from stronger patient advocacy to meaningful contributions in EU and national health policy.
- The absence of this funding would deeply undermine civil society’s ability to bring the voices, needs, and lived experiences of young patients and their families into policy conversations, at the very moment those voices are most needed.
EU funding through operating grants is not just about keeping the lights on; it is about keeping patient advocacy strong, independent, and at the heart of a truly inclusive and resilient European Health Union.
What are operating grants?
Operating grants are EU funding awarded by the European Commission every year for operating costs of a non-governmental organisation (NGO), after a rigorous process of selection. As EU grants may not finance the operational and human resources costs in its entirety, co-financing needs to be provided either by the applicants’ own financial contribution or in the form of public or private contributions obtained from other donors.
The grant agreement describes the specific obligations of the NGO and the maximum level of the EU contribution, which the Commission calculates as a percentage of the total eligible costs.
When are the operating grants expected to be adopted?
The tender for 2025 operating grants should have been published early 2025, together with the 2025 EU4Health Work Programme. However, the Commission published the Programme itself in July 2025, months later than the ordinary procedure requires. On top of that, the operating grants are entirely missing from the 2025 Programme. Without this framework, patient organisations cannot plan, hire or engage in the manner required to do their job, while expectations and needs towards their commitment continue to grow.
