The Finnish EU presidency's overall objective in health policy is to promote the principle of Health in All Policies. Health is largely determined by factors outside the domain of health care and policies other than health have direct effects on health determinants. The Health in All Policies approach is also meant to contribute to horizontal EU policies, such as the Lisbon strategy. It is supposed to have positive effects on national and local economies through higher productivity and labour participation.

The main EU legislative proposals on the table during the second half of the 2006 are the Health programme 2007-2013, the revision of legislation on medical devices and a proposal for a Directive on advanced therapies; on all of which the Council is expected to reach a political agreement on 30 November 2006.