Newsletter February 2006

Launch of a manual for national health platforms in Latvia

On 6 February 2006, EPHA launched the manual “Creating national Public health alliances in new member countries of the European Union” in Latvia.
This event was organised as part of EPHA’s project, “Strengthening the development of national platforms on public health in new EU member states”, and in co-operation with the Civic Alliance Latvia.
There were around 40 participants representing NGOs, public administration and the media.
Lara Garrido-Herrero, EPHA’s (...)

New Slovenian pulbic health platform: the Slovene Coalition for health

Following up EPHA capacity-building seminar in January 2005, the Slovenian Coalition for health was set up on December 2005 by Slovenian orgnaisations and officially registered on 25 August, 2006.
Background
On January 2005, EPHA in co-operation with the Centre for non-governmental organisation of Slovenia (CNVOS) organised a capacity building workshop “Towards a national public health platform in Slovenia”. Expert facilitators delivered training modules on the EU and Health and (...)

February 2006 newsletter

Welcome to the February 2006 edition of the EPHA Newsletter.
In mid December 2005, national governments reached an agreement on the EU budget for the period 2007-2013.
Despite the rhetoric from Heads of State that the Union’s objectives are enhancing prosperity, competitiveness, solidarity, cohesion and security, they ignored the critical link between healthy people and a healthy economy. They clearly decided NOT to equip the EU with the financial means to protect the health of their (...)

Secretariat News February 2006

Events that EPHA attended
Francesco attended a meeting of the EMEA/CHMP Working Group with Patients’ & Consumers’ Organisations in London on 15 February. He also attended the collaborators meeting for Public Health News magazine in London one week later. Reports from both events are available for members in the members only area.
Francesco also attended the launch of the YSAFE network, as part of the SAFE project.
Agnese attended a meeting at the Latvian Health Promotion (...)

Capacity Building Project of EuroHealthNet

EPHA member organisation EuroHealthNet launches a project for capacity building for national statutory health promotion agencies in the new EU Member States.
This project brings together Public Health and Health Promotion Agencies from eight New Member States (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia), two accession countries (Bulgaria and Romania), as well as Greece.
The project’s general objective is to improve the capacity of the participating (...)

The role of nursing care in the European Social Model - Debate with MEPS

The European Federation of Nurses Associations (EFN), EPHA member, organised an EU dialog on the role of nursing care within the European Social Model, in the European Parliament on the 28 February 2006.
The debate aimed to debate on nurses mobility between the Member States and accross continents (the US example) and how it can affect the quality of care and patient safety in the European Region. The results of the debate will contribute to the development of policies at European level. (...)

*UPDATED* Implementing child-resistant lighters in the EU: not so easy

*UPDATED* The European Commission has decided that non-child-resistant lighters are banned from the EU marketplaces.
As of the 14 March 2007, the EU required that lighters must be child-resistants. It also bans lighters which resemble objects that are attractive to children.
The deadline to comply with this regulation is the 11 March 2008.
Background
On the 08-09 February 2006, as requested by the Directive on the General Product Safety (GPSD) 2001/95/EC, the European Commission presented a (...)

Opening for Project Assistant at Eurocare

Eurocare EU Liaison Office is looking for a project assistant for a one year contract in Brussels.
Position: The project assistant will be responsible for:
follow EU drug and alcohol policy
assist the European Affairs Officer
support Eurocare project activities
Profile:
People with German / French are welcome.
NGO, project experience, knowledge of public health policy is an advantage.
For more information, please contact Anders Ulstein at anders.ulstein@actis.no.
Deadline: end of (...)

Capacity building workshop on environment and health, Zagreb 3-4 March 2006

EPHA Environment Network, PIN for Health and the Croatian Nurses Association are organising a Capacity Building Workshop on Environment and Health which will take place in Zagreb, Croatia on 3-4 March 2006.
The workshop will be open to Croatian NGOs and community groups working on health and environment issues or active in the implementation of the environmental acquis communautaire in preparation for EU accession.
Workshop objectives
To increase knowledge and raise awareness on the key (...)

Informal Consultation Meeting on the Green Paper on Mental Health

EuroHealthNet, EPHA member, organises an informal consultation meeting on the Green Paper on Mental health on Wednesday 8 March 2006 from 9.30 - 12.30 at the Social Platform premises.
The objective of the meeting is to enable participants to contribute their views on mental health in relation to social inclusion and human rights. The input will be fed directly into the second formal consultation meeting of the EU Platform on Mental health, organised by the European Commission and the (...)

European Baseline Mental Health Conference, Budapest 22-23 March 2006

A major international conference on mental health was held in Budapest in March 2006.
This conference is part of the project Implementation of Mental Health Promotion Policies and Strategies in EU Member States and Accession countries (EMIP), of which EPHA is a partner. The project is coordinated by the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health - FIOSH/BAuA (Germany).
The goal of EMIP is to provide national partners and the wider EU membership with opportunities, resources, (...)

**UPDATED**Fact sheets on Vulnerable road users

UPDATED with the Irish fact sheet. The VOICE (Vulnerable Road User Organisations in cooperation across Europe) project, in which EPHA is a partner, publishes informative factsheets on vulnerable road users. The first two ones concern Belgium and the United Kingdom.
The fact sheets aims to identify areas of concern for road safety, look at examples of best practice and provide an information base for campaigners.
They will target the following countries:
Austria,
Belgium,
Czech (...)

2006 Call for proposals in the field of Public Health

The European Commission has launched the 2006 Call for proposals for projects to be funded through the EU public Health Programme. This follows the adoption of the 2006 Work plan which sets out the priorities for this year.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 19 May 2006.
A budget of € 43 million has been set aside for the call and projects shall not exceed three years.
An Information Day for potential project submitters covering the implementation of the Public Health Programme was (...)

New EU portal dedicated to the Roma community

The Anti-Discrimination Unit of the Directorate-General Employment and Social Affairs recently launced a new EU portal on ¨EU and Roma¨.
It aims to provide information about the different policies, programmes and initiatives of the EU to promote social inclusion and combat discrimination against the Roma community.
Projects addressing Roma discrimination and promoting their inclusion could receive EU funding under several programmes:
Anti-discrimination
Employment and social inclusion (...)

TV documentaries on health issues financed by the European Commission

European Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou launched on 2 February 2006, the multimedia “European Health Information Platform”, aimed to finance TV reports on health issues.
Managed by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the project aims to create a network of public broadcasters and other media across Europe and to foster the exchange of television documentaries, radio broadcasts and press and internet articles on health issues.
It should be noted (...)

Future Presidencies of the European Union

This article will be updated with links to information about each presidency as it becomes available.
The Council of the European Union has confirmed the order of the half yearly rotation of the presidency of the EU until June 2020.
; Year ; January-June ; July-December ; 2006 ; Austria ; Finland ; 2007 ; Germany ; Portugal ; 2008 ; Slovenia ; France ; 2009 ; Czech Republic ; Sweden ; 2010 ; Spain ; Belgium ; 2011 ; Hungary ; Poland ; 2012 ; (...)

**UPDATED** European Commission High Level Groups questioned by the European Parliament

**Updated with concerns of the European Parliament and the G10** On the 08 February 2006, the Greens/EFA, one of the political groups of the European Parliament, warned about the growing influence of corporate interests on the European policy-making processes.
The Greens/EFA and European Parliament position
The Greens/EFA political group has been aware of a list of invited participants to the "High level group on competitiveness, energy ane environment". This High level group will be (...)

Report on marketing of foods to children

The independent consumer protection group Which? has recently published a report entitled "Childcatchers: the tricks used to puch unhealthy food to your children".
The report identifies more than 40 different marketing methods used to encourage children to eat foods high in fat, sugar and salt, ranging from product placement in films to text (or SMS) marketing.
The report also higlights the need for tighter controls in this area that address all forms of advertising and promotion to (...)

Launch of the European Regional and local Health Authorities platform

On the 30 January 2006, the newly formed EUREGHA Network (EUropean REGional and local Health Authorities platform) was launched. The objective of the network is to improve coordinated policy communication between EU institutions and regional and local authorities working on health issues.
As regional and local authorities are increasingly affected by health initiatives and have more and more responsabilities in the field, EUREGHA intends to build an administrative regional and local (...)

**UPDATED** Implementation of the tobacco advertising ban in Europe

*This article has been updated with information about the European Commission’s actions against Spain, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Germany*.
Directive 2003/33/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to the advertising and sponsorship of tobacco products, bans tobacco advertising in the print media, on radio and over the internet in Europe.
It also (...)

New projections on the impact of ageing on public expenditure in the EU25

A new report published by the European Commission provides a detailed description of the projections on age-related expenditure covering pensions, health care, long-term care, education and unemployment transfers for EU25 Member States for the period 2004 to 2050.
The projections, prepared by the EC Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs and the EPC Working Group on Ageing Populations on the basis of commonly agreed assumptions, describe in detail the potential economic (...)

Opportunity for NGOs to participate in a UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS

In order to review the implementation of the United Nations (UN) 2001 Declaration on Commitment on HIV/AIDS, the United Nations will organise a follow-up meeting due to take place in New York from 31 May - 2 June 2006. They plan to involve all stakeholders, including civil society organisations.
It is meant to review progress achieved in realising the commitments set out in the 2001 Declaration and to renew political commitment.
It will involve all sectors of the international community, (...)

Second Global Plan brings the fight against TB to a new level

The Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015, Actions for Life was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on 27 January 2006.
With 9 million cases and 2 million deaths every year worldwide, tuberculosis ranks among the leading infectious diseases with an incidence rate of 1% each year.
The Global Plan sets out a 10-year agenda for reducing TB incidence in line with Millennium Development Goals and for halving, by 2015, TB prevalence and deaths compared with 1990 levels. (...)

**UPDATED** Services directive: Agreement from the Council and the European Parliament to exclude healthcare services

The European institutions are to reach a compromise on the sensitive issue of services.
Results of adoption by the European Parliament - February 2006
According to the text, the Directive will not apply to “healthcare, whether or not it is provided via healthcare facilities, and regardless of the ways in which it is organised and financed at national level or whether it is public or private”.
The text takes on board the remarks made in the past months by the EU health community: (...)

**UPDATED** European Council approves new legislation on human tissues and cells

The European Council adopted on 3rd March 2004 a proposal for a directive setting out harmonised safety and quality standards for dealing with human tissues and cells.
The Council adopted all the amendments proposed by the European Parliament in second reading.
The dossier was amended in second reading on the rules for voluntary donation, traceability and types of source material used for transplantation.
Standards of quality and safety of human tissues and cells
UPDATE: On February 2006 (...)