Newsletter February 2005

EU institutions react on Organic Food and Farming

The Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament has adopted in February an own initiative report by MEP Marie-Helene Aubert (Greens/EFA, FR) calling for more financial and institutional support for organic farming in Europe. This follows the European Commission Communication: "European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming" (COM (2004) 415) issued in June 2004. In December 2002 a working document entitled "Analysis of the possibility of a European Action Plan for organic food and (...)

European Parliament adopts a report on workplace health and safety

On 24 February 2005, the European Parliament adopted an own-initiative report on "Promoting Health and Safety at the Workplace" by Jiri Mastalka (CZ, GUE/NGL). The report is a reply to the Commission’s Communication on how the Framework Directive of 1989 and five individual Directives on occupational health and safety have been transposed into national law and applied (see related EPHA’s article). Parliament’s resolution notes that Community legislation has made an (...)

Diet Nutrition, Physical Activity in the EU

There is no overall food and nutrition strategy at EU level. For a number of years, many health NGOs have been calling for a comprehensive approach that would integrate overall nutrition goals, the Common Agriculture Policy, food safety measures and legislation on food labelling, marketing and promotion. The role of inappropriate or poor nutrition in illness has been conclusively proved by the World Health Organisation: "41 % of healthy life years are lost through diseases with major (...)

French NGOs demonstrate against irradiation of food

Irradiation of food is permitted in the European Union according to legislative guidelines. A number of French NGOs will demonstrate outside irradiation facilities on 5 March 2005 to indicate their strong concerns about potential danger from food irradiation and the lack of proper informaiton for consumers. Action Consommation, Agir Pour l’Environnement, Les Amis de la Terre - France, Association Léo Lagrange pour la Défense des Consommateurs, ATTAC - France, Biocoop Bure-Stop, (...)

Petition to WHO on research and development of medicines

On 24 February 2005, 162 non-governmental organisations, academics and politicians issued an open letter urging the World Health Organisation to evaluate the draft Medical Research and Development Treaty that has been drawn up over the past two years by a group of economists, scientists and public health experts Existing trade agreements designed to bolster medical R&D investments focus nearly exclusively on stronger intellectual property rights and higher drug prices. This approach (...)

EU funding for information dissemination to combat violence

The European Commission’s DG Justice and Home Affairs, has an open call for proposals under the framework of Daphne II - the EU Programme to combat violence against women, young people and children. The deadline for submission is 1 April 2005 for projects aiming at the dissemination and the use of results fomr existing and prior projects. The Daphne II programme runs from 2004 until 2008 with a budget of EUR 50 million. Its objectives are to support organisations that develop (...)

EU must do more to meet targets on women’s health

The Luxembourg Presidency of the EU organised in early February a meeting to review the European implementation of goals stated at the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995. The Beijing confrence identified 12 areas as goals for improvement. Women’s health was one of the priorities. Although the 25 Ministers responsible for Gender Equality in Luxembourg declared their commitment to improve the situation of women in Europe, “there are still many factors hindering gender (...)

Tougher rules in the UK for advertising of pharmaceutical products

In February 2005, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) launched new, tougher guidance on advertising and promotion of medicines. The key principle behind the guidelines is to prevent people from being misled by confusing advertising. The main changes in the new guidance include: Tougher measures against poor practice. In addition to any legal action which the Agency pursues over unlawful practice, it will also be publishing every review of an advert (...)

French Government committed to alleviate the burden of accidents at work place

Every year, nearly 5,500 people are killed on their workplace across the European Union according to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. 4.5 million accidents resulted in more than 3 days absence from work (amounting to around 146 million working days lost per year). These accidents are estimated to cost the EU about 20 billion Euro. The problem affects all sectors of the economy and is particularly acute in enterprises with less than 50 workers. The French governement has (...)

Secretariat News February 2005

A new staff member joined the team. Murielle Chiltz is the new EPHA administrator. A French national, Murielle has experience of working in the European Commission and a network of local and regional authorities. The EPHA Annual General Assembly (AGA) will be held in Brussels on Thursday 23 June 2005 (all day) and Friday 24 June 2005 (half day). Thursday 23 June will include a business meeting (election of Executive Committee members for the mandate 2005-2007, approval of new members and (...)