Secretariat News April 2010

1. Activity and communication

Strategic Planning for EPHA EPHA continued its member consultation on the next planning period for the organisation. The two draft documents remain available and members are encouraged to contribute to the discussions. Please access information on the documents and the process here. These were discussed during a Health Determinants Strategic Interest Group with members, held on 14 April and during a team day on Friday 9 April.

Policy Coordination Meeting On 7 April 2010, EPHA held its third 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 Secretariat wrote to new Director General for DG Sanco, Paola Testori-Coggi and requested a meeting. A date has been set for 21 May 2010, and will be attended by EPHA Secretary General Monika Kosinska, EPHA President Archie Turnbull and Director of Policy and Strategy Luiza Bara.

European Parliament On 15 April 2010 the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group of the European Parliament organised a debate to discuss the European Commission proposal on the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) with MEPs and civil society representatives. The S&D speakers welcomed the initiative of the Commission. Martin Schulz (German), Chair of the S&D group, gave the opening remarks and emphasised the importance of the ECI. EPHA attended this event. For the full report please see here

The Council The Spanish Presidency of the EU organized the second "EU Roma Summit" on the 8th and 9th of April 2010 to discuss the promotion of the social inclusion of the Roma. EPHA contributed with a briefing note and participated in the meeting. Two reports for members are available. More information is available here.

On 28 April EPHA hosted an exchange of views between EPHA members and representative of the Spanish Presidency. Enrique Terol Garcia, Health and Consumer Affairs Counsellor for the Spanish Permanent Representation in Brussels presented the health priorities of the Spanish Presidency, and he provided further information on Spain’s role within the Trio presidency with Belgium and Hungary.

European processes

European budget Together with three other representatives of members of the EU Civil Society Contact Group, Anne Hoel – EPHA European Policy Manager – met with Pascal Leardini, Head of Unit, Secretariat General of the European Commission. The objective of the meeting was to get more information on how the EU Budget Review will be carried and its impact on the upcoming Multi-Annual Financial Perspectives. The European Commission will publish an orientation paper on the EU budget to set up the principles and priorities of the EU Budget. For more information please click here www.epha.org/a/4018

Cohesion policy An informal roundtable with non-governmental organisations was organised by DG Regio on regional policy and cohesion funds. The meeting was very high-level and was attended by approximately 20 NGOs, including EPHA Treasurer Gunther Schulz representing EPHA. A full report will be available in the following newsletter.

European policies

Diet and Nutrition EPHA organised a Food and Nutrition Working Group meeting on 7 April 2010, with strong participation from our member organisations working on these topics. The minutes will be made available online shortly.

EPHA participated in a dinner organised by Friends of Europe on Food Information to Consumer, with the rapporteur on the Regulation Renate Sommer MEP (EPP, Germany). During the dinner, it became clear that from among some of the MEPs present there was an increasing sympathy towards the public health position on food information. This is essential if the vote during the plenary is to overturn the decision against traffic lights.

Alcohol Due to the travel disruption following the volcanic eruption, the Open Alcohol Forum, planned for 22 April 2010, was postponed. A new date will be proposed by the European Commission soon.

Tobacco Given the tragedy in Poland involving the Polish Presidency, EPHA has temporarily suspended its advocacy activities in the country. This will resume in May. EPHA was requested by the British Medical Journal to comment on the progress of the legislation, which should be published in early May.

Chronic disease

Respiratory diseases The European Respiratory Society, an EPHA member, held a seminar in the European Parliament, hosted by Members of the European Parliament, Prof. Ioannis Tsoukalas (EPP, Greece) and Ms. Satu Hassi (Greens/EFA, Finland). The purpose of the seminar was to discuss respiratory research priorities and future EU challenges at the European Parliament within the framework of the year of the lung. The EPHA Secretariat was present at the event. To read the full article with presentations available click here

Cancer On 14 April 2010, the European Parliament organised an event to launch the "European Colon Cancer Campaign – Screening saves lives – and money". EPHA attended the meeting. More information about the Campaign is available here.

Injuries No news on injury prevention in April.

Mental health The first formal meeting of the European Parliament Interest Group on Mental Health took place on 28 April, 2010 to discuss its objectives and organisation of the group. Chaired by Ms. Antonya Parvanova, MEP and co-chaired by Ms. Nessa Childers, MEP and Ms. Glenis Willmott, MEP the group will meet 3 times a year with a room for additional meetings depending on the demand. EPHA attended this meeting. For the full report click here

Health inequalities EPHA member, FEANTSA launched its European campaign on ’Ending homelessness’ in the European Parliament in the framework of the European Year 2010 for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. This event gathered a range of key actors to discuss how the EU can tackle homelessness, EU Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Lazlo Andor. The same day, FEANTSA launched its European campaign ’Ending Homelessness’ and a publication ’Ending Homelessness : A Handbook for Policy Makers.’ The EPHA Secretariat attended the launch and a summary is available here

Global Health The Seventh Global Health Policy Forum took place on 15 April 2010 at DG Development. It presented the Communication on "The EU Role in Global Health", the newest Action for Global Health`s policy report "2010 : Reality Check", as well as an agenda for the upcoming 63rd session of the World Health Assembly. EPHA’s Frazer Goodwin co-chaired the Forum.For the full report click here

On World Health Day (7 April 2010), a new report by Action for Global Health was launched simultaneously in six places across the European Union. The report "2010 Reality Check: Time is Running Out to Meet the Health Millennium Development Goals" urges European leaders to focus on concrete issues and take up actions that can break the cycle of poverty and ill health in developing countries. EPHA is a member of this Consortium. To read the EPHA article click here

At the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of ACP (African-Caribbean-Pacific) and EU countries, Action for Global Health Brussels partners - including EPHA - launched the "Just a minute !" campaign and photo exhibition to highlight the issue of maternal health: every minute a woman dies from complications during pregnancy or childbirth, but "Just a minute !" presents concrete solutions to help improve maternal health.More information about the Campaign is available here

Climate Change No EPHA news on climate change in April.

Agriculture European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dacian Cioloş, launched an open debate on the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the European Union. The objective is to contribute to a first policy paper on the CAP post-2013. The contribution deadline is 3 June 2010. To read EPHA article click here

Robert Pederson attended the international conference on the future of the Common Agriculture Policy after 2013 "Towards a new common agricultural policy" in Copenhagen on April 26, 2010. The conference in Copenhagen highlighted the most of important challenges that the future Common Agriculture Policy needs to address.

Trade On 27 April the Belgian Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence organised a conference on the impact of European trade policy on public health, in particular in the global South. EPHA attended this event, the focus of which is the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union and the Cariforum countries (Caribbean ex-colonies) as well as an ongoing EU-India agreements.

Pharmaceutical policy EPHA sent a letter to European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli on Information to Patients. In the letter, EPHA welcomed Commissioner Dalli`s commitment to reassess the proposals on “information to patients” that was made during his hearing and called on his services to handle the dossier urgently in order to clarify uncertainties in the legislative process. The reassessment of the proposal would rectify bottlenecks from a public health perspective would be a first opportunity to “put patients and consumers first”. The current proposal does not meet the needs of citizens for relevant, independent and comparative health information tailored to users. For more information on Dalli`s hearing click here www.epha.org/a/3825 . For the five key priorities, which were also outlined in a joint press release click here.

The EPHA secretariat monitored the ENVI Committee votes on pharmacovigilance and counterfeit medicines on 27-28 April and is preparing a briefing on which amendments passed the vote. The briefing will be made available online in the members`s only section. For more information on Pharmacovigilance click hereFor more information on Counterfeit Medicines click here

A Working Group on Pharmaceutical policies took place on 30 April 2010. Minutes will be available for members, in the members’ only section.

Health system financing No EPHA news in April.

Healthcare On 12 April attended the Romanian Health Forum, held in Brussels under the auspices of the Romanian President and Ministry for Health. The event brought together an important number of stakeholders with a view to discuss challenges and opportunities for the health sector in Romania, but also more generally in Central Europe and the European Union. EPHA moderated a session of the Forum, which discussed health equity, the balance needed between health promotion, prevention and treatment and the role of stakeholders in building trust in healthcare systems.

Health workforce A working group on health workforce took place on Tuesday 6 April with high attendance from EPHA members. The minutes for the meeting will be online shortly and the agenda can be found here www.epha.org/a/3936

2. Partnerships

International bodies

The World Bank A meeting between the World Bank and CSOs in Brussels took place on 8 April, which was attended by the EPHA Secretariat as well as EPHA’s President Archie Turnbull.The meeting was attended by approximately 40 CSOs from Europe, the USA and a number of African countries (including Uganda, Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya). There were also approximately 10 World Bank representatives, including Graeme Wheeler (Managing Director for Human Development) and Julian Schweitzer (Acting Vice President for Human Development). Civil society and the World Bank both approached the day with the view of having an open and frank dialogue on the World Bank’s policies for Health, Nutrition and Population and its engagement with civil society.

European stakeholder bodies

Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue From 26-28 April 2010, a representative from the EPHA Secretariat participated in the 11th Annual Meeting of the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue. EPHA is a member of this informal network, and the discussions surround food policy, intellectual property, nanotechnology, climate change and information society. A meeting with EU and US officials was organised with Commissioner Dalli and Director General for DG SANCO Paola Testori Coggi in attendance. A full meeting report will be made available online shortly.

European Health Forum The European Health Forum has been renewed for the first time and now comprises of 52 pan-European health stakeholders. The new members will attend the next meeting of the forum on 20 May 2010. The Open Health Forum will take place on 29-30 June 2010 and will focus on Health in All Policies, EPHA will lead a workshop on stakeholder involvement. There will also be an exhibition at which some members of the Health Policy Forum will display their organisations.

European Medicines Agency - Patient and Consumer Working Party The EMA received press attention this month, with a report from a transparency group accusing a number of the members for failing to disclose appropriately moneys received from the pharmaceutical industry. Although the report was correct in fact, it did not take into account certain issues which impacted on the way the conflict of interests are managed by the EMA, namely that the form is not sufficiently sensitive.

EU Health Portal Editorial Board No news in April.

European Food Safety Authority On 13 April 2010, EPHA welcomed a delegation from the European Food Safety Authority for a bilateral meeting on areas of shared interest. The EFSA delegation was headed by EFSA’s Executive Director Catherine Ghislain-Laneele. Topics discussed included Health and Nutrition Claims, Nutrient Profiles, the EU Food Consumption Database and new and emerging technologies. For a full report please consult this article in the Members’ Only Section

On 13-14 April 2010, EPHA participated in the EFSA Stakeholder Consultative Platform in Brussels. This stakeholder forum meets three times a year and gathers not-for-profit and industry representatives to discuss issues related to risk assesment along the food supply chain. This meeting addressed a wide-number of topics that are important for EPHA’s work on nutrition. Please read a full meeting report here

Data Partnership No news in April.

Stakeholder Dialogue Group No news in April.

Non-public health contributions to public health This group, whose inaugural meeting was due to be held at the end of April, has been post-poned due to the change in Director General in DG Sanco. No new dates have been set, but it is not likely to be reconvened until the Autumn.

European projects

Seventh Framework Programme No EPHA news.

European public health community

Open Forum EPHA is a member of the Steering Group of the Open Forum, to be held on 29-30 June 2010, in Brussels. The Steering Group has been working since January to develop the conference agenda. The theme of the Open Forum is ‘Health in All Policies’ and in addition to high-level opening and closing plenaries will compose of six themed workshops – agriculture and health; environment and health; financing and health; innovation; impact assessment and; stakeholder involvement. EPHA is organising the workshop on ‘stakeholder involvement’ which will explore the consultation mechanisms and ‘weight’ given to stakeholders, as well as looking at the role of non-health stakeholders in delivering health in all policies. The Open Forum will hold 400-500 participants and is open to the whole of Europe.

Annual Public Health Conference – Amsterdam, Netherlands EPHA has submitted five abstracts to the Annual Public Health Conference in Amsterdam on 1) Global health 2) Health inequalities 3) Children’s health 4) Evidence-based policy-making 5) Agriculture, as part of the European Public Health and Agriculture Consortium.

European civil society

Civil Society Contact Group EPHA Chaired the meeting of the Civil Society Contact Group on Friday 30 April 2010. Discussions included the Citizen’s Initiative and Civil Dialogue versus Stakeholder engagement. A report of this meeting will be available next month.

Social Platform On 22 April, the Social Platform General Assembly took place, bringing together a wide number of social NGOs in order to decide on the Work Plan of the organisation for the next year, its budget, as well as to elect a new member of the Management Committee. On the latter, Catriona Williams, coming from Eurochild, joined the board of the organisation. The General Assembly of the Social Platform had the pleasure to welcome for a debate Ms Catherine Day, the Secretary General of the European Commission and a lively discussion was held, with a focus on the EU 2020 Strategy. EPHA was represented at this meeting by Luiza Bara. More information about the Social Platform can be found here

Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation On 26-27 April, EPHA attended the General Assembly of the ALTER-EU (Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation). The Coalition celebrated its five-year anniversary and launched a book on this occasion, entitled "Bursting the Brussels’ Bubble". The General Assembly was an opportunity to discuss and decide the priorities for the Alliance for the next year, its Work Plan, as well as other general business.More information about the ALTER-EU and its 10 Key Demands can be found here EPHA’s Secretary General was appointed to the Steering Committee.

National public health community

Hungary Together with ASPHER, EPHA is organising a capacity-building event in Hungary in mid-May. This event is aimed at academics and public health practitioners, with a focus on the current health situation in Hungary given the country’s economic and social challenges. This event is the third of EPHA’s capacity building events for 2010 (following the Brussels-based Polish event and the Slovenian tobacco-themed event. Three additional capacity building events are planned for later this year: an agricultural study visit to Poland in September, a capacity-building session as part of ASPHER’s Young Researchers Forum during the third Annual Public Health Conference and a Ukrainian event.

Poland EPHA’s close partner in the tobacco work in Poland has submitted an application for EPHA membership.

United Kingdom EPHA participated in a North West of England Region conference entitled ’’Making the Link – Matching European Opportunities to North West Health Priorities", on Thursday 29 April. EPHA intervened more specifically on the challenges and opportunities for public health promotion at EU level over the coming years.

3. Staff

Staff changes

New starters Anne Hoel joined EPHA on 1 April 2010 as European Policy Manager. Her academic background spans political sciences, international relations and EU policy. A French citizen, Anne previously worked for EPHA as a Policy Officer between 2005 and 2007 before gaining further policy experience at the Social Platform. In her new capacity at EPHA, she is responsible for overseeing the delivery of EPHA policy objectives and deliverables. She chairs the Policy Coordination Meetings and is responsible for the management of the delivery of advocacy strategies for the various policy issues.For more information and contact details, please see here

Eleanor (Ellie) Brooks also joined the Secretariat in mid-April as a health systems policy intern working on the pharmaceutical package, cross-border healthcare and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). Ellie graduated from Lancaster University (UK) with a BA in Politics where she has been working alongside Professor Robert Geyer, examining the political implications of the European Commission’s information to patients proposal, with particular reference to the effects of similar legislation in the U.S. and New Zealand.

Lindy Hilgerdenaar is EPHA’s latest research student from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. She joined EPHA at the end of April for a 10-week internship. A Dutch national, Lindy is currently finishing her Master in European Public Health, and she will be working on the European Alcohol and Health Forum.

Leavers EPHA is sorry to say goodbye to Murielle Chiltz, EPHA’s Finance and Operations Manager who has been with us for five years. Murielle will be leaving EPHA at the end of July, and on behalf of the Secretariat, we would like to thank her for all her hard work and support during her time at EPHA. We will be recruiting for her replacement as soon as possible.

Promotions and internal changes Jo Jewell has changed positions within EPHA, taking up the post of Knowledge and Risk Coordinator from 1 May 2010. Jo was previously Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Coordinator.

Doriane Fuchs has started her position as Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Officer, having successfully completed her internship.

Leonardo Palumbo has started his position as European Affairs Officer, having successfully completed his internship.

4. Members

Re-organisation of EPHA website EPHA is continuing the re-organisation process of its website to make it more user-friendly. The dummy site is now under construction.

Executive Committee Meeting EPHA’s Executive Committee (ExCo) held a teleconference on 13 April 2010 to discuss the 5-Year Strategic Plan covering the period 2011-2015, that was circulated to members as a consultation item. The ExCo discussed the different aims and priorities contained therein. The ExCo meeting agendas and Minutes are available in the Members only section. Furthermore, ExCo members discussed the outline of the agenda for the next General Assembly, which will take place on June 17 and 18 at the Martin’s Central Park Hotel in Brussels. More information will be made available soon.

Financial Subcommittee Meeting EPHA’s Financial Subcommittee also convened on 13 April 2010 for an in-house meeting related to guaranteeing a sustainable financial future for EPHA. FinCo meeting agendas and Minutes are also available in the Members only section.

Second Governance Working Group Meeting EPHA’s Governance Working Group (GWG) held its second meeting by teleconference on 13 April to continue the review work mandated to them by the membership. Most importantly, the group elaborated a thorough Work Plan which outlines the tasks to be undertaken between now and 2011, when the final Report of the GWG will be brought to the membership. Areas for review include membership categories and criteria, application procedures, conflicts of interest and confidentiality, policy making procedures, and EPHA’s governing documents (Statutes, Internal Rules), to name but a few.