Secretariat News October 2008

EPHA working meetings

From 6 to 10 October 2008, EPHA and the other Action for Global Health partners in Brussels met the Italian partners of the network in their offices in Bologna and Rome to discuss the work of Action for Global Health in Italy.

On 8 October 2008, EPHA arranged a meeting with European Heart Network (EHN) and the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) to discuss our advocacy steps relating to the proposed regulation on ’Food information to Consumers’.

From 14 to 16 October 2008, EPHA and the other Brussels partners of Action for Global Health met the French partners of the network for a discussion on the Brussels work of Action for Global Health.

On 13 October 2008, EPHA had a meeting with the Health and Agricultural Consortium in Brussels to discuss priorities for 2009 related to food and nutrition, agriculture and health. The Consortium was founded by EPHA members such as the EHN, Heart of Mersey and the UK National Heart Forum.

On 15 October 2008, EPHA had a working meeting with a lecturer from the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast concerning a project, ’EU EPHA gave, on 9 October 2008, a presentation to the master students from the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal on the role of EPHA and other advocacy NGOs in the EU. Governance of AIDS, Cancer and Obesity to discuss Governance, Citizenship and Polity’. The project is looking into tracing the development of EU governance in public health policy with the examples of AIDS, cancer and obesity.

The first internship assessment day was held on 8 October 2008. The interns talked a little about their first month with their organisations and Monika Kosinska led a discussion and talk on Communication.

EPHA attended a Working Group of the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) on 10 October 2008 to discuss information to patients. The discussion was very fruitful and various strategies where discussed.

EPHA met with the NHS Brussels Office in London on 15 October 2008. Among the topics discussed were the patients’ rights Directive and E-health. EPHA is attempting to broaden its horizons when it comes to E-health and to discover what EPHA’s role is in the debate.

The Royal College of Nursing met with EPHA on 15 October 2008 to discuss issues of interest and current activities at Brussels level. EPHA discussed with RCN the main issues for health professionals such as the patients’ rights Directive and the Green Paper on health professionals.

EPHA attended the Royal College of Physicians’ round table on health services and patients’ rights. The meeting, in London on 16 October, was a high-level discussion and was an opportunity for EPHA to give voice to citizens’ concerns. to read the full report click here.

EPHA attended the Social Platform Working Group on services of general interest on 23 October 2008, where EPHA raised the importance of the patients’ rights Directive as a service of general interest.

EPHA met the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) on 29 October 2008 to discuss a common vision for health professionals and patients ahead of discussions on patient rights and working time.

On 30 October 2008, EPHA met the Secretary General of the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) to discuss a possible joint advocacy strategy on the proposed Patient’s Rights Directive.

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EPHA working groups

There were no EPHA working group meetings held in October.

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EPHA, your ’eyes and ears’ in Brussels

From 1 to 4 October, EPHA attended the European Health Forum Gastein, which included an NGO meeting with the European Commissioner. The article on the meeting with the Commissioner can be found here

On 3 October 2008, EPHA attended a meeting hosted by the Social and Economic Committee on FP7 Research for the Social Sciences. The meeting was an opportunity for project coordinators to give an overview of their research, and to show what sort of projects have received funding from the FP7 so far.

On 9-10 October 2008, EPHA attended a two-day workshop hosted by DG Research. "Goverscience-CSO " was an opportunity for EPHA to share its experience of undertaking research, and to contribute to the aim of improving researcher-CSO cooperation. Find the article here

On 10 October 2008, EPHA gave a presentation to students doing a Master’s degree at the Belgo-Italian Chamber of Commerce about EPHA’s activities and EU lobbying.

EPHA attended an event in Paris on ’Europe for Patients’. The event was held by the French presidency at the Pasteur Institute on 13-14 October 2008.

On 14 October 2008, EPHA and the AGE Platform organised a hearing in the European Parliament about ’Maintaining Healthy Ageing within the Renewed Social Agenda’. Please find an article about this hearing at the EPHA website.

EPHA attended the 7th Roundtable on Poverty and Social Exclusion in Marseille on October 15-16. The report from the event can be found here

On 16 October, EPHA attended the Sherpa Meeting of the High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry. Discussions at the meeting focussed on the preparation of a list of concerns to be agreed on at the meeting of the High Level Group. Please find an article about the work of the High Level Group here

On 16 October 2008, EPHA set up a Health and Consumer Intergroup meeting in the European Parliament in Brussels to discuss the proposed Directive on the Application of Patients’ Rights in Cross-Border Healthcare. Please find an article on the Intergroup at the EPHA website->art3268].

On Friday 17 October, EPHA attended a discussion on the future of development cooperation organised by the European Policy Centre. To read the full article click here

On 21 October, EPHA participated in a meeting of the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. The themes of the meeting were Salt Initiatives and Public Private Partnerships. Find the article here

On 21 October EPHA attended a meeting on innovative financing mechanisms for health in developing countries organised by the European Alliance against Malaria at the French Permanent Representation to the EU.

On 22 October, EPHA attended the Briefing to MEPs on Food Information to Consumers hosted by BEUC at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Find the article here

On 22 October EPHA met with the Swedish Permanent Representation to the EU to discuss their priorities and plans for their presidency relating to global health.

On 22-23 October 2008, EPHA participated to the ALTER-EU General Assembly. The Commission’s Register of Lobbyists and Conflicts of interests were among the topics discussed. The report can be found here.

On 27 October 2008, EPHA participated in the Civil Society Contact Group Meeting. Topics discussed included the European Civic Days, the European Parliament elections, and the Commission’s Register of Interest Representatives. Please find the full meeting report here.

On 28 October 2008, EPHA attended the ISAFRUIT conference in Brussels. ISAFRUIT is European Integrated Research Project that focuses on all aspects of fruit from its start as a seed till a consumer bites into an end product, funded by 6th Framework Programme, DG Research.

On 29-30 October 2008, DG Sanco hosted a two-day conference, "Delivering for Tomorrow’s European Consumers." EPHA was able to attend, and topics discussed included setting the health policy agenda for the future, working together to achieve tomorrow’s health aims, and the future of new technologies and consumers. Read a summary article here

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EPHA health advocacy

EPHA met with the Green party secretariat working on health issues to discuss the patients’ rights Directive and information to patients on 1 October 2008.

On 2 October 2008, EPHA had the chance to participate in an roundtable debate in the Dutch Parliament in the Hague to express our views on the proposed Directive on Patients’ Rights in Cross-Border Healthcare.

On 7 October 2008, EPHA gave a presentation about the initiative and the process of the Agro-Food Industry Competitiveness lead by DG Enterprise for Scandinavian visitors.

On 7 October 2008, EPHA arranged a meeting with the Public Health Secretariat of the European Council in Brussels to exchange our priorities for EU Public Health for 2008 and 2009.

On 7 October 2008, EPHA met the Council Secretariat for the health working parties. This meeting yielded interesting information about the potential for future work with the Council and was also an opportunity to build relationships with those at the heart of the Councils work.

EPHA was asked to speak at Eurocardonia, in a question and answer session about the Patients’ Rights Directive. This gave EPHA the chance to talk and exchange views with the interested group.

On 9 October 2008, EPHA participated in the second European Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion in Paris by giving a presentation about dissemination method on the European Code of Injury Prevention. More information about this conference can be found at the EPHA website

EPHA gave, on 9 October 2008, a presentation to the master students from the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal on the role of EPHA and other advocacy NGOs in the EU.

On 16 October 2008, EPHA had a meeting with the French Association for Sustainable Consumption to discuss future possibilities of partnerships.

On 20-21 October, EPHA attended the second annual meeting of the Stakeholder Consultative Platform from the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA). The agenda included, a presentation of EFSA’s draft strategic plan 2009-2013, as well as information sessions on health claims and on the creation of a food consumption database.

On 22 October 2008, EPHA visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg to meet with MEPs from the EPP-ED, Greens, PSE and InDem parties. In each meeting the issues that EPHA is currently working on were discussed.

On 23 October 2008, EPHA attended the Flemish Health Conference on Diet and Physical Activity in Oostende, an initiative from the Flemish Minister for Health, Steven Vanackere. At this Conference, the Flemish Action Plan on Diet and Physical Activity 2008-2015 was presented by the Flemish Institute for Health Promotion and endorsed by the WHO, Department Nutrition and Health.

On 25 October 2008, EPHA participated in a seminar organised by Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE) on “Nutrition: a family matter” in Sofia, Bulgaria. EPHA presented the European Public Health Community’s view on the fight against obesity in Europe and the role of the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health.

Over the course of October 2008 EPHA held meetings with various health attaches in order to ascertain various positions and interests on health systems (Patients’ Rights Directive and Information to Patients) and food information to consumers.