MHE publishes Slovenian Presidency Scorecard

Mental Health Europe (MHE) released a Scorecard measuring the performance of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (July – December 2021) in relation to mental health and human rights.

What is the Scorecard about? 

To engage with and analyse the performance of the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), Mental Health Europe has devised a scorecard system through which we evaluate each Presidency’s commitment to and promotion of mental health. The performance of each Presidency is rated based on the following criteria:  

• Promotion of mental health and well-being,  
• Commitment to the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities,  
• The involvement and empowerment of users of mental health services.  

How successful was the Slovenian Presidency in terms of mental health & human rights?

• During the Slovenian Presidency, disability or mental health were not identified as a top priorities, however, several initiatives were related to Mental Health Europe’s areas of work.  In November 2021, Council Conclusions on strengthening the European Health Union were approved which recalled that the health, economic and social insecurities due to the COVID-19 pandemic had negatively impacted mental health and spurred detrimental lifestyle habits and has disrupted health promotion and prevention programmes.
• Despite attention to health and resilience, there was no concrete focus on the area of mental health.
• The Slovenian Presidency performed very well in areas such as resilience and digitalisation. Noteworthy commitments were not conveyed in regards to psychosocial disabilities and the involvement of service users. This was certainly a missed opportunity to contribute to a more inclusive EU and to uphold human rights standards.