2018 video highlight from Youth Cancer Europe’s White Paper launch event at the European Parliament addressing the first of five key issues of the document: the Right to be Forgotten for cancer survivors.

As a direct result of YCE’s advocacy work since 2018, the topic was included in Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan as well as the European Parliament’s BECA committee’s resolution on Strengthening Europe in the fight against cancer towards a comprehensive and coordinated strategy 2020/2267(INI) stating that by 2025, at the latest, all Member States should guarantee the right to be forgotten to all European patients 10 years after the end of their treatment, and up to five years after the end of treatment for patients whose diagnosis was made before the age of 18. The Report, echoing YCE’s White Paper, calls for the introduction of common standards for the right to be forgotten under the relevant provisions on consumer protection policy of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, to remedy the fragmented national practices in the area of creditworthiness assessment and ensure equal access to credit for cancer survivors; and calls for embedding the right to be forgotten for cancer survivors into relevant EU legislation to prevent discrimination and improve cancer survivors’ access to financial services.

Since the 2018 event hosted by YCE in the European Parliament, when only France could provide an example, legislative motions were adopted in Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Romania, with more European Member States to follow.