24 February 2026

The MMD Group is delighted to welcome Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Olivier Chastel (Renew, Belgium) as a new member. MEP Chastel serves as a Member of the Committee on Budgets (BUDG), the Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) and the Committee on Public Health (SANT). He also serves as a Substitute in the Committee on Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ENVI).

Before his election to the European Parliament in 2019, Olivier Chastel trained as a pharmacist and built a career in research, quality management and industry consultancy. He subsequently entered politics with the Reformist Movement, holding a range of local, national and ministerial roles before serving as party president.

MEP Chastel acts as shadow rapporteur for the SANT Committee’s opinion on the own-initiative report by the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, addressing gender inequalities in health. This report represents an important step forward in EU action and, we hope, a first move towards a dedicated Women’s Health Strategy. In this capacity, he played a pivotal role in ensuring that gender-specific considerations in diabetes were fully acknowledged, notably by underscoring key disparities, such as the fact that women are diagnosed with diabetes on average 4.5 years later than men. Disparities extend well beyond diagnosis, also affecting health outcomes: women living with diabetes face a 13% higher risk of all-cause mortality and a 30% higher risk of cardiovascular mortality. Pregnancy represents a significant risk period for both mother and child; both in cases of pre-existing diabetes and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), up to 50% of women with GDM develop type 2 diabetes (T2D) within five years, while their children are six times more likely to develop T2D and childhood obesity. The mental health burden is also greater for women, who are twice as likely as men to experience depression and anxiety related to the condition. It is equally important to ensure that medical devices and health technologies are designed, assessed and implemented in a way that adequately reflects women’s specific needs and lived experiences.

We warmly thank MEP Chastel for joining the MMD Group and for his invaluable support in ensuring that gender inequalities in diabetes are considered in EU legislative work. We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with him and his office.