Our annual seminar this year covered the new Public Health Programme, sustainable development, enlargement and partnerships. Taking place on 17-18 June in Brussels, it attracted representatives from more than 40 organisations. Participants heard from Fernand Sauer, Director of Public Health plus representatives of DG Environment and the World Health Organization. The meeting also provided the opportunity for EPHA to announce the findings of its survey on health and enlargement.
Dr Fernand Sauer, Director of Public Health, DG SANCO (Public Health and Consumer Affairs) described the new Public Health Programme and said that workplans on the three strands (Health information, Rapid reaction, Health determinants) would be defined over the next two months. He announced the "externalisation of some functions of DG Sanco" to an Executive Agency. He said that the agency would have no decision or policy functions. Referring to an announcement by Commissioner David Byrne, Dr Sauer said that a Centre for Communicable Disease was planned by 2005.
Dr John Martin, newly appointed Director of the WHO Office at the European Union, said that sustainable development was an area of growing co-operation between WHO and the European Commission. A communication on a Strategy on Environment and Health was planned as was an Agenda on Children and Environment. He took the opportunity of the EPHA seminar to announce that theme of this year’s World Health Report was violence and health. It addresses violence as a public health issue.
Mr Thomas Gronberg, Member of the Cabinet of EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström, DG Environment, felt that environmental experts and health and medical experts tended "not to speak the same language". There was a need to combine perspectives. This was particularly important given the fact that European citizens accept environmental action if they can see the affect on their own health or that of their children.
Ms Roxana Bonnell, Open Society Institute Network Public Health Programme (Soros Foundation), said that her organisation’s health work concentrated on Central and Eastern Europe. Specifically they addressed public policy components, equity and vulnerable populations, and gaps left by other funding organisations. She said that the coming few years were crucial for public health in the accession countries pointing out that legislation in some areas in their own countries may be more progressive that EU legislation, for example, on tobacco promotion control.
Additions to EPHA’s "Members only" website
Following a discussion on "partnerships", it was agreed that EPHA would provide all available information on "Calls for Proposals" from the European Commission on funding opportunities and on "Requests for Partnerships".
EPHA Health and Enlargement survey findings
Analysis was based on responses from 47 NGOs working on health issues in Central and Eastern Europe. These groups:
Have made health promotion and public health their top priorities
Welcome the enlargement process as a opportunity to raise public health standards and the quality of health care in their countries
Hold a high opinion of EU leadership in public health
Consider that the benefits of enlargement for public health can best be achieved via:
1. Greater access to quality information on health in the EU
2. More opportunities to network and share experiences within Europe
3. A higher profile for their organisations at the European level
4. More involvement in processes influencing the future European public health agenda.
EPHA is offering free membership to health-related NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe and hopes to intensify its activities once funding is made available. These would include:
Promoting networking via national workshops in accession countries where NGOs would have opportunities to meet and exchange experiences.
Developing an EPHA data-base on NGOs involved in health in Central and Eastern Europe.
Organising a major conference in 2003 to support health NGOs in CEEC in their health promotion and public health work, and to strengthen citizen participation in health-related policy making at the European level.
