Secretariat News February 2010

Activity and communication

Policy Coordination Meeting - On 3 February, EPHA held its first Policy Coordination Meeting of the year, which brought together various member organisations in order to discuss latest policy and advocacy developments in the public health field. The meeting was well attended by members and enjoyed a lively debate. More information is available here.

European institutions

European Commission - The new European Commission started its political mandate on 10 February. EPHA followed the vote in the European Parliament on 9 February. The parliamentary vote on the whole Commission was delayed by three months due to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, which was not completed until November 2009, and because Ms Rumiana Jeleva, the Bulgarian Commissioner-designate, had resigned. The Commission, headed by President Jose Manuel Barroso, will serve for a five-year mandate. More information is available here .

European processes

Post-Lisbon Strategy - The EU2020 process became the political ’hot potato’ in February, with a number of NGOs continuing to protest against the version, and a leaked Commission report circulating amongst Brussels-based actors. Early indicators show some inclusion of social indicators but very little on health other than its economic contribution. The Secretariat will continue to follow this in March until the Spring Council and the follow-up.

Better Regulation - The Smoke-Free Partnership (SFP) held an event in the European Parliament on 24 February, discussing the impact of the SFP report on the influences of the tobacco industry on the Better Regualtion agenda and the limits and adequacy this agenda. The meeting was attended by approximately 90 NGOs, including a number of EPHA members, industry representatives and MEPs. Monika Kosińska, EPHA Secretary General, was a panel speaker at the event which discussed a number of recommendations for improvements and ways forward. A report from this event will follow in next month’s newsletter.

European policies

Tobacco - On 1 February 2010, EPHA participated in an event organised by the Smoke Free Partnership on illicit trade in tobacco. The meeting gathered a number of experts. The objective of the seminar was to provide an outline of the discussions that will take place at the fourth Intergovernmental Negotiating Body meeting (INB4) in Geneva in March 2010, where the final negotiations will take place on the Illicit Trade Protocol, a subsidiary treaty to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The discussion centred on how the EU can make an impact on these negotiations, with a special reference to the problems specific to Africa. Read more about the meeting here.

Diet and Nutrition - On 10 February 2010, EPHA sent an open letter to the Romanian Government responding to the announcement to examine a proposal for an initiative on ’junk food’ taxation, which would impact on foods that are high in fats, salt, sugars and additives. Please find a full report of the initiative here.

On 11 February 2010, EPHA attended the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. The purpose of the Platform is to gather stakeholders working on food on physical activity in order to develop actions to tackle obesity. EPHA organised a pre-meeting with its members and partners in order to discuss the main points from the agenda. EPHA prepared discussion documents for the NGO pre-meeting as well as coordinated potential questions to be asked to industry during the course of the meeting.The minutes will soon be available on the members’ only section of the EPHA website. The process went well, with a very successful series of interventions during the meeting itself as a result. A summary of the meeting is available here.

Alcohol - On 2 February 2010, EPHA attended a meeting organised by the European Alcohol Policy Alliance, Eurocare, organised a seminar on “The Social Cost of Alcohol : Passive drinking”. Hosted at the European Parliament, the event gathered a wide range of stakeholders. More information on the event is available here.

After having contributed to the consultation process on strategies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol launched in 2008 by the WHO, EPHA summarises the draft Global Strategy that will be considered in May at the World Health Assembly. The summary can be read here.

Sexual health - On 13 January 2010, EPHA attended the Sexual Health Forum. This event marks a step towards the formation of an EU strategy on sexual health for young people. More information about the Forum is available here.

Global Health - On 11 February, for the fifth time already, EPHA attended a monthly Global Health Policy Forum. During the meeting an update on proceedings towards Global Health Communication and a briefing on online CSO consultation were presented. Subsequently, presentations on the latest Executive Board meeting of WHO, on Global Health in Foreign Policy and Universal Health Coverage were given. In light of the proceedings in Innovative Financing for Health, Frazer Goodwin from EPHA gave an update on the Robin Hood Tax Camapaign. The next Global Health Policy Forum is scheduled for 11 March at DG Development.

Trade - On 4 February, EPHA attended a breakfast briefing on the Implications of the Lisbon Treaty on EU Trade Policy. The meeting discussed the current complex national and transnational legal framework of trade policy, with the Lisbon Treaty bringing in the greater involvement of the European Parliament. EU trade policy is closely linked to public health, development, environment and climate change, among others. A full report from the meeting is available here

Pharmaceutical policy - EPHA continued to closely follow the developments on the Pharmacovigilance directive and regulation, as well as on the Falsified medicines directive and continued its dialogue with key MEPs on its respective positions. EPHA observed the vote that took place in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee of the European Parliament on 23 February on the pharmacovigilance files.

Health system financing - EPHA has been invited to join a coalition of stakeholders supporting the introduction of financial transaction taxes (FTT) to raise money for both domestic social spending and finance for climate change and development internationally.

Partnerships

International bodies

The World Bank - The meeting between the World Bank and CSOs in Brussels reported in last month’s report has been postponed until 8 April.

European bodies

European Food Standards Agency - On 26 February 2010, EPHA participated in a joint meeting of the HLG on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The meeting took place in Parma and addressed topics such as GMOs, health claims, nanotechnology and pesticides. More information will be soon made available on EPHA website in March.

National public health community

Poland - Following the work undertaken in Lodz on capacity building amongst the Polish public health community, a Brussels-based event for members was held on 22-23 February (please see members section for more information). During the two-day visit EPHA held a roundtable for Brussels-based NGOs to discuss their experiences working with Polish actors and to identify common challenges and approaches. The outcomes from this roundtable will be developed into a set of recommendations on building and supporting national advocacy in Central and Eastern Europe to follow on the 2009 work on this. A report from the Polish work will be available on the EPHA website.

Slovenia - On 26-27 March 2010, EPHA will be co-organising a conference with the Slovenian Coalition for Tobacco Control (SCTC), ’’Building Public Health Dialogue and the Role of Health NGOs in the Republic of Slovenia and the EU’’ as part of its capacity building activities in CEE countries. The conference aims to promote the Slovenian ’’NGOs Protect our Health’’ network and to stimulate sustainable links between NGO representatives, policy makers and academics from Slovenia, Brussels, and selected EU Member States. The final agenda will be made available on EPHA’s website in early March, and a post-conference report will be provided. Two articles in this month’s newsletter are dedicated to the SCTC. Please find these articles here
 www.epha.org/a/3890, and
 www.epha.org/a/3891

Staff

Staff changes

New starters - On February 1, Shana Doerr started work as an intern at the EPHA Secretariat. Currently completing a Bachelor’s degree at the University of Maastricht, Shana, a German national of Polish-Romanian background, will be cooperating with EPHA’s Agriculture and Health Manager Robert Pederson and generally support the policy team during her stage. Her thesis focuses on assessing the health impact of CAP subsidies.

Members

Re-organisation of EPHA website - EPHA started the process of re-organisation of the website to make it more user-friendly. The contractor has submitted a proposal for a new site map, which has been accepted, and is in the process of developing this into a working dummy site.

EU workshop for members EPHA organised a two-day induction into European affairs for members and central and Eastern European delegates on 22-23 February in Brussels. This is part of EPHA’s capacity building work for CEE, and given the interest from the members it was opened up to other delegates. This meeting was very successful with very good feedback from participants and a constructive evaluation outcome with suggested small improvements. A report from the two days will be available in March.