Welcome to the December 2003 edition of the EPHA newsletter.
The Italian Presidency closed with the collapse of the InterGovernmental Conference with no agreement on a new EU Treaty. The row over voting weights for Member States, particularly for Poland and Spain, could not be solved. The failure of the talks with not affect EU enlargement in May 2004 because the institutional arrangements from the 2000 Nice Treaty will remain in force until 2009. After the intense negotiations of late 2003, talks on a new Treaty will not start immediately. The Irish Presidency will prepare a status report in Spring 2004 on what consensus exists among Member States on the various issues.
The European Parliament will debate recognition of professional qualifications, an information exchange on new and synthetic narcotics and the EU efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS and malaria in the developing world. The Detergents Regulation will go through 2nd reading and the Employment and Monetary Affairs committees will be discussing the EU services sector. Parliamentary elections will be held across the EU on 10 June 2004 and MEPs will have a difficult time completing their legislative agenda before they start campaigning for re-election in May.
Forthcoming campaign: in the coming weeks EPHA will be asking its member organisations to contribute towards a ’Report card’ for the European Parliament (1999-2004) and help prepare a ’Health Manifesto’ as an advocacy tool for candidates in the June elections.
Looking forward to early 2004, nutrition will be on the agenda with discussions in the European Parliament about the draft Regulation on health and nutrition claims for good products and the Irish Presidency will be holding a conference in February on preventing Cardiovascular disease.
DG SANCO will confirm the plans for the EU Open Health Forum which will probably take place in Brussels on 29 April 2004. This event will bring together 200-300 stakeholders from across Europe to exchange ideas and network on health issues. EPHA is part of the steering committee for the event and will be submitting ideas for workshops at the Forum.
For EPHA members, a Policy Coordination Meeting (PCM) was held on 3 December 2003, minutes will be available shortly. PCM’s are planned in 2004 for 21 January, 25 February and 31 March.
You can consult the main articles of this newsletter online by clicking here.
