Europe will lack up to one million doctors and nurses by 2030.

Omissions

• The figure of 'up to/almost one million by 2030' is a WHO projection for the WHO European Region (53 countries), not an EU-27 measured statistic; the claim's geographic scope is imprecise.
• The claim presents the 2030 shortage as a future ceiling, but the European Commission already reported a shortage of 1.2 million doctors, nurses and midwives across the EU as of January 2025, i.e. a figure above the 'up to one million' projection, reflecting a different baseline/methodology rather than a contradiction.
• The corroborating secondary source (EU Perspectives, September 2026) is dated at or very close to the session date, so the MEP may not have had direct access to that specific article; the underlying WHO estimate is older.
• No primary WHO Europe report page was retrieved to verify the 'almost one million by 2030' projection directly; the figure rests on one independent secondary source citing WHO.

Sources

• PrimaryEuropean Commission – DG SANTE (Launch of the first EU action to address nurse shortages)Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, said: "We currently face a shortage of 1.2 million doctors, nurses and midwives across the EU, and there is a decline in interest in nursing careers across more than half of EU countries."
• SecondaryEU PerspectivesThe World Health Organization (WHO) counted a shortfall of 1.2 million health workers in 2022 in its European region. It expects a gap of almost one million by 2030, as populations age and long-term care needs grow.