Welcome to the June EPHA newsletter.
France took over the EU Presidency on 1 July and President Sarkozy’s grand plans to ’get the EU back on track were immediately derailed by the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by voters in Ireland. The Brussels establishment is still recovering from the defeat, and the institutional future is uncertain.
In June, EPHA organised its Annual General Meeting which was well attended by members and involved lively exchanges of views on governance, strategy and policy issues. We extend a warm welcome to eight new member organisations and two newly elected members of the Executive Committee.
In the same month, EPHA participated in the the first meeting of the European Commission’s High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry. This initiative has been launched at a time when increases in oil and food prices have exacerbated a global food crisis and European policy-makers have been discussing two key challenges - climate change and soaring obesity rates.
The logic of the High Level Group is that the EU must act to maintain and promote the existing of Europe’s agro-food industry, but this does not question the fundamental model of food production and manufacturing. The impact of our eating habits is visible not just one our waistlines and health, but also the planet. The food industry - as producer, manufacturer, distributor and generator of waste - is the largest source of greenhouse emissions. The increasing use of cars and intensive, industrial food production has occurred together with more sedentary lifestyles and aggressive food marketing. Therefore, discussions of how to respond to the challenges of climate change and obesity, which were raised this month at the Faculty of Public Health Conference in Cardiff, UK, need to be linked at the European level.
Finally, on 2 July, the long delayed Commission proposal for the Patients Rights’ Directive was published as part of the ’Social Package’ of measures to address equity aspects of the single market. There are few surprises because the proposal is very similar to earlier drafts that have been circulating in Brussels over the past 9 months. One thing is clear: this Directive highlights the huge inequalities within Europe in access to healthcare and this draft legislation will not affect this fundamental problem.
It is inconceivable that a Europe with 27 different baskets of ’human rights’ would be acceptable and yet the reality of healthcare in Europe is that significant inequalities exist, and this Directive brings them sharply into focus. The text largely reflects the results of various European court judgements over the past few decades which protects the rights of individuals who have chosen to seek treatment in other countries to demand reimbursement from their home countries. What this reinforces is that individuals with the financial resources already exercise choice about their provider within national health systems and now their market for choice is extended to the whole of the EU, with national systems left to pay the bill.
According to the Commission’s own research, only about 1 % of patients are likely to travel abroad for treatment, so all of this legislative effort is designed to benefit a small proportion of the population. The real question is whether it should be the role of the European Commission to seek a solution to inequalities in access to health or will Member States take the responsibility for ensuring that all of their populations, particularly the most disadvantaged, have access to the care that they need and close to their homes.
Although the Directive may not not have much impact on the way that healthcare is delivered, policy-makers need to be able to assess if focussing on the rights of the few individuals to be funded for treatment abroad may undermine the objective of providing high quality care in a timely manner to patients in the communities where they live and work.
Read all the online articles of our Newsletter for June 2008
EPHA members can find the following new information in the Members Only section:
High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry, June 2008
18th June EPHA Presentation to NW of England representatives
*Update* EPHA position paper on Food Labelling, June 2008.
Use EPHA to raise awareness on your activities
Risk Assessment Days 2008 - Stakeholder Dialogue Session
European Alcohol and Health Forum- Workshop Monitoring and Evaluating, 3 June 2008
ENVI committee meeting on food information to consumers, June 24th, 2008
Please note that if an EPHA member would like to highlight their activities in the EPHA Newsletter, the deadline to submit a news item is Friday 25 July 2008. Please send your items to the EPHA Secretariat
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