Policy implementation as a barometer of commitment to movement

Across the European Union, physical activity is no longer treated only as an individual lifestyle choice. It is framed as a policy issue that can be measured, compared and improved. The clearest sign of this shift is the Health-Enhancing Physical Activity (HEPA) Monitoring Framework, which tracks how far member states have implemented a set of agreed guidelines for promoting movement across sectors. In 2024 this framework reported that, on average, EU countries had achieved 81.8 percent of its indicators, a level that reflects sustained progress over almost a decade.

81.8 percent implementation

The HEPA Monitoring Framework assesses implementation of the European Union Physical Activity Guidelines through 23 indicators that cover areas such as education, health, transport, sport and urban planning. These indicators do not measure how many people are physically active. Instead, they ask whether countries have put in place the policies, action plans and coordination mechanisms that make active living easier.

The World Health Organization and the European Commission report that across the EU, the average proportion of these 23 indicators achieved by member states rose from 64.7 percent in 2015 to 74.5 percent in 2018 and 76.5 percent in 2021, reaching 81.8 percent in 2024. Between 2021 and 2024 alone, a 5.3 percent improvement in implementation was observed.

In practical terms, this means that in 2024 the average EU country had put in place more than four out of five of the recommended policy measures that the framework tracks. It is a statistical summary of political and administrative work: national action plans, intersectoral committees, school-based schemes, campaigns in the health sector, and incentives for active transport.

A decade of measurable policy progress

From a public health perspective the trajectory of these numbers matters as much as the latest value. The WHO report emphasizes that there has been an overall improvement in implementation between 2015 and 2024, and the European Commission highlights the same upward trend. Policy implementation across the 23 indicators has increased by more than 17 percentage points over this period, an indication that governments have continued to add and strengthen measures rather than letting commitments stagnate.

A separate quantitative analysis of EU physical activity policy status up to 2021 found that member states had significantly increased their policy implementation between 2015 and 2021 by 13.2 percentage points, from an average of 63.30 percent to 76.51 percent. The HEPA Monitoring Framework data show that this upward movement has continued through to 2024.

This pattern matters intellectually because it refutes the idea that physical activity policy is static or symbolic. The evidence from HEPA monitoring shows that concrete measures have been added over time, and that the overall policy environment in the EU has become more supportive of physical activity on paper and in administrative practice.

Policies as an infrastructure for movement

The HEPA indicators are deliberately broad. They cover whether countries have a national physical activity plan, whether that plan addresses specific target groups, whether there are schemes to promote school-related physical activity and active travel to work and whether national policies include a plan for evaluation. The 2024 report notes important recent increases in exactly such indicators.

This approach reflects a policy logic that is now widely endorsed by global health agencies. The WHO Global Action Plan on Physical Activity describes a comprehensive national approach as one that shapes environments, systems and opportunities for movement, rather than relying only on individual counseling. When the HEPA Monitoring Framework records higher implementation scores, it is capturing growth in this kind of enabling infrastructure: safer routes to walk and cycle, school programs that integrate movement, health services that prescribe activity and cross-government coordination that treats physical activity as a shared responsibility.

Evidence from the EU suggests that such policy environments can be built through sustained effort and monitoring. The rise from 64.7 to 81.8 percent implementation across nine years is not a spontaneous change in individual behavior; it is the cumulative result of institutional decisions and legislative processes.

The gap between policy and behaviour

At the same time, implementation scores are not the same thing as physical activity levels in the population. The study of EU trends up to 2021 that documented a 13.2 percentage point increase in policy implementation also found no significant change in the proportion of adults meeting sufficient physical activity levels between 2013 and 2022, with averages of 60.59 percent and 61.70 percent respectively.

This finding is important for interpretation. It shows that even when policies strengthen, behavior change is not automatic or immediate. The benefits of a more supportive environment can take time to appear in surveillance data, and may show up first in specific groups such as children, older adults or people with chronic conditions that are not fully captured in high level prevalence figures. It also underlines that implementation quality and enforcement matter as much as the existence of policies on paper.

From a public health perspective, the coexistence of rising implementation and relatively flat activity prevalence is not a contradiction. It is an argument for persistence. Without the policies, there would be little reason to expect progress at all. With them in place, countries at least have a framework within which to refine interventions, target gaps and respond to new evidence.

Policy progress as proof that change is achievable

Despite the lag between policy and behavior, the HEPA Monitoring Framework offers one clear lesson. Governments can and do move. Over less than a decade, EU member states have collectively increased their average implementation of physical activity promotion measures to more than four fifths of the guideline indicators, with a further 5.3 percent gain between 2021 and 2024 alone.

This matters for how we think about physical activity as a public good. It shows that cross-sectoral recommendations need not remain aspirational. With monitoring, technical support and political will, they can become a set of concrete measures that most countries implement. The WHO and the European Commission both present the 81.8 percent figure as evidence of a growing commitment to promoting physical activity as a critical component of public health.

Looking forward, the central challenge is to convert high implementation scores into equally strong gains in real world movement and health outcomes. That requires not only sustaining the existing policy framework, but also ensuring that measures reach groups who are least active, that implementation is resourced, and that evaluation findings feed back into policy refinement. The EU experience to 2024 shows that policy progress is possible at scale. It provides a statistical backbone for the broader claim that when governments adopt and sustain movement-friendly policies, they create conditions in which population health can improve in measurable ways over the long term.