Newsletter December 2005

Creating national health alliances in new EU member states

The handbook “Creating national health alliances in new EU member states” by Geof Rayner gives valuable information on NGO development and public health promotion. The handbook was prepared for the European Public Health Alliance to assist organisations and individuals in the new member countries of the EU in central and eastern Europe to stimulate their own voice for public health and to develop an organisational form to express this voice. The manual can be used as a tool (...)

Code of conduct for non-profit organisations

The European Commission issued guidelines for Member States to coordinate the non-profit sector in the context of the fight against terrorism. The European Commission has adopted Guidelines for Member States on national level coordination structures and vulnerabilities of the non-profit sector. According to these guidelines, the Commission will set up an "informal contact group" with civil society and will organise a conference with representatives of the non-profit sector and other (...)

EU budget in the spotlight

This article has been updated with the latest call for action and an analysis of the consequences of the financial agreement on the Health programme (attached documents). For more information on the agreement reached on the 04 April, read EU leaders agree a budget for 2007-2013 The debate about the EU budget is heating up as the June 2005 deadline for agreement gets closer. It takes about 18 months to prepare the legal paperwork to allow the EU to spend money on programmes so if a deal is (...)

Science and society: Meeting of Minds

*This article has been updated with information about the outcome of the project.* The King Baudouin Foundation successfully led an EU-funded project called "Meeting of Minds" which aimed to foster greater involvement of citizens in defining priorities for brain research. Run by 12 different organisations, the 2-year pilot project "Meeting of Minds" gave the opportunity to ordinary citizens from 9 EU Member States to discuss the impact of brain science on their daily life and express (...)

What role for civil society in research?

Following the publication by the European Commission of its proposal for the Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7) (2007-2013) and the recent two FP6 calls for proposal targeting civil society, the role of civil society organisations must be significantly strenghtened in research. Although there are a lot of concerns about the funding distribution in FP7, especially with regard to health, the other face of the debate focuses on the "war of evidence". How is defined sound and (...)

Fourth meeting of the Diet, Physical Activity and Health - EU Platform for Action

The fourth plenary meeting of the European Union Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health took place on 30 November 2005 in Brussels. The meeting was chaired by Robert Madelin, Director General of DG SANCO at the European Commission. Nutrition and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Following the chair’s introduction, the floor was given to Mr Lars Hoelgaard, Deputy Director-General of DG Agriculture, who delivered a presentation on the "CAP contribution to the European (...)

The revision of the Television Without Frontiers Directive: an unhealthy Christmas present

EPHA issues a call for expressions of interest for partnerships within the CEE region

EPHA is issuing a call for expressions of interest for partnerships to strengthen the national networks on public health in CEE countries. The aim of the call This call for proposals has been launched to identify organisations that are interested in networking and prepared to carry out activities that will bring together a wide range of other local, national or international organisations. The overall goal of this call is to develop partnerships and build up coalitions of NGOs that are (...)

Making civil dialogue work better

The Civil Society Contact Group , of which EPHA is a member, is running a study on the participation of civil society organisations in the EU policy process. The study will be published by the end of April 2006. Its aim is to give some input to important debates at the European level such as Plan D, improving transparency and the future since the failed constitutional process. Up till now, there are many missing points in the development of the civil dialogue such as lack of coherence (...)

Building NGO capacities in Slovakia, November 2005

A seminar organised by EPHA on capacity building for NGOs in New Member States took place in Bratislava, Slovakia, from 24 to 27 November 2005. Entitled “Citizen in the centre in the EU”, the event was financed partly by the European Commission and partly by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports of The Netherlands. EPHA, the Netherlands Institute for Care and Welfare (NZIW) and the Social Work Advisory Board (RPSP) in Slovakia co-organised the event. The aim of the event (...)