"The European Commission needs to look at the 27 and allocate resources. The good thing is that Portugal already has many resources installed. It just needs to connect the dots," said José Dinis, who participated today at the IPO do Porto in the opening session of the 2nd National Congress of Epidemiology and Cancer Registry, representing the Director-General of Health, Rita Sá Machado. José Dinis revealed that the National Cancer Registry (RON) was classified by the Ministry of Health as the entity representing Portugal in a European 'joint action' that aims to harmonise national registries with the European registry. "This is very important because what is in the European registry is what is valid for European policies and funding. It is important to be aligned from the beginning," he said to an audience of health professionals, namely epidemiologists. Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the session, the official specified that this 'joint action' will serve to define how data is processed and provided to the European cancer surveillance system so that it can "compare apples with apples and pears with pears". The director of the National Programme for Oncological Diseases pointed out that we are currently experiencing "a moment of change", recalling the approach of the European elections scheduled for 9 June. "Cancer is at the top of the list of priorities, namely of the European Commission. Let's hope it continues. We must influence politicians from all sides so that cancer is on the agenda of the European elections," he said. Regarding the RON, José Dinis considered that it "needs a boost", a reinforcement that could involve, he added, "interconnection with the national vaccination registry or with screening programmes, as well as the interconnection of more precise information". Another of the projects highlighted today, and for which the Directorate-General of Health is setting up working groups, relates to the strategy for the elimination of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection. "Portugal must have a strategy for the elimination of HPV. It is not only the cervix, it is the carcinoma of the vagina, carcinoma of the penis, carcinoma of the oropharynx, of pre-malignant diseases (...). We have to be aligned with the WHO [World Health Organization], through the IARC [International Agency for Research on Cancer] and the European Commission. We have to call on epidemiologists for this theme, we are all going to be needed," he concluded. The 2nd National Congress of Epidemiology and Cancer Registry ends on Friday. Also Read: Trump accuses migrants of bringing "terrorists" and "contagious diseases" (Portuguese version)