EPHA on the move
After 9 years at Rue de Pascale, the EPHA Secretariat is moving to new offices at 39-41 Rue d’Arlon, B-1000 Brussels. The new space is centrally located near the European Parliament and easily accesible for public transport. The new office will make the work of the secretariat easier, it has a state of the art computer network as EPHA moves to an open source environment. Sharing office space with EPHA will be EPHA Environment Network (EEN) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS). EPHA members are welcome to visit the new EPHA offices on the occasion of the Annual General Meeting, 28-29 June 2004. Please update your mailing lists accordingly.
EPHA Environment Network awarded a grant
EPHA Environment Network, an offshoot of EPHA formed in 2003 has been awarded an operating grant from DG Environment to deliver an ambitious work programme on health and environment issues and contribute actively to the Budapest Ministerial Conference in June 2004. Genon Jensen is the fulltime Director of EEN and an information and policy office is currently being recruited.
Campaigning on chemicals for the new Parliament
On 24 March 2004 the European Environment Bureau (EEB) organised a conference in Brussels on the EU’s chemicals legislationknown by the acronym of ’REACH’. Tamsin Rose made a presentation about the health arguments for REACH that can be made during the European election campaign for MEPs.
Eurobarometer data on quality of life
Lara Garrido-Herrero attended the launch of the Eurobarometer data covering different fields linked to quality of life in the 15 Member States, the 10 acceding and three candidate countries, on 3rd March 2004.
All reports are available on the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
Services of General Interest
Manon Favrin and Lara Garrido-Herrero attended the social policy working group meeting of the European Social Platform of NGOs on 2nd March 2004, where the joint conference on social SGI was debated. EPHA is also participating in a working group of the EU Health Policy Forum on the draft Directive on Services.
DG Sanco Call for Proposals 2004
Francesco Longu and Lara Garrido-Herrero attended the Information Day of DG SANCO in Luxemburg last 22 March 2004. Full report is available in the Member’s only section of EPHA’s website.
Roundtable on patient mobility process
Tamsin Rose participated in a Roundtable discussion in Brussels on 27 February 2004 and evaluated applications submitted to the European Commission for the e-health awards scheme. The results of the selection will be announced at the e-health Ministerial conference being organised in Cork, Ireland in early May 2004.
EU Health Forum
EPHA is co-organising one of the afternoon workshops at the Open Health Forum in Brussels on 17 May 2004. Entitled ’health and citizens’ the workshop is co-organised with the European Patients Forum and will include speakers from EPHA member organisations. On behalf of the EU Health Policy Forum, EPHA and EHMA are drafting a document examining ’Health information for citizens’. The text will be initially discussed at the Health Policy Meeting in June 2004.
Opportunities for HIV/AIDS NGOs in the Enlarged EU
Tamsin Rose attended a meeting of the partners of the Integration Projects on 18-20 March in Brussels.
The meeting focused on enabling the HIV/AIDS NGOs involved in the Integration Projects to benefit from EU Enlargement through learning about key policy issues and funding opportunities in Europe and sharing experiences and practices with other HIV/AIDS NGOs from accross Europe.
