Newsletter December 2007

*Updated* Social reality stock-taking: European Parliament response to Commission consultation

This article has been updated with the recent communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, which was adopted on 20 November 2007. As a result of this additional document, the new deadline for responses has been postponed until 15 February 2008. In an own-initiative report on Europe’s social reality, the European Parliament asks the Commission and Member States to aggressively (...)

December 2007 Newsletter

Dear readers, welcome to the December 2007 edition of the EPHA Newsletter. We warmly thank you for having accompanied us along 2007 and wish you happiness and a prosperous New Year. Fifteen days of sometimes emotional and dramatic negotiations at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change ended on 15 December 2007 with the adoption of the Bali Roadmap. This is expected to launch negotiations on a crucial international climate change regime to ensure that the new deal can enter into (...)

Secretariat News December 2007

Events organised by EPHA Caroline hosted the last Policy Coordination meeting of 2007 on 4 December 2007. On 12 December 2007, Caroline organised a Health and Consumer Intergroup in Strasbourg on the EU Health Strategy. For more information, please visit the Health and Consumer Intergroup website. Meetings and events attended by EPHA On 6 and 7 December, Caroline Bollars attended the second meeting of the European advisory board of the University of Maastricht for the Bachelor and (...)

European Commission priorities for public health in 2008

DG SANCO has published their work programme for 2008 which outlines the legislative and non legislative initiatives that are scheduled for the next 12 months Following the agreement on the Reform Treaty in October 2007, Member States face the challenge of ratifying the Treaty in record time in 2008 so that the text is adopted before the European Parliament elections in June 2009. Related to these big questions on the future of Europe, DG Budget will launch a review of the EU to examine (...)

EHMA conference on health care directive cancelled in January 2008

European Health Management Association (EHMA) had to cancel its healthcare conference that would take place on 25 January 2008 in Brussels due to the fact that the release of the Health care Directive was postponed until spring 2008 . For further information: EHMA website

Community strategy for improving health and safety at work

Launched by the Commission, the new five year plan concerning safety and health at work aims at cutting work-related accidents by a quarter across the EU. The new strategy will be in effect from 2007-2012 and follows the previous community strategy of 2002-2006, which is proving to be effective. The main challenge of the new strategy is to reduce the total incidence rate of accidents by 25% in the EU-27. To achieve this goal, the Commission has proposed the following: guarantee the (...)

Report of World COPD Day

On 14 November 2007, to mark World COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) Day, the European Respiratory Society (ERS), the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations (EFA), and the European Lung Foundation (ELF) organized a lunch debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a mixture of chronic bronchitis and emphysema and often is associated with other serious long-term conditions such as heart (...)

Improving efforts to tackle TB in Europe

2007 has seen several international developments to spur Europe into action on tackling TB. The challenge for 2008 will be to retain this momentum and translate it into policy action.

Climate change and health

This year has seen the focus on climate change shifting away from an exclusive focus on reducing emissions with recognition that past emissions have already caused the climate to change with resultant impacts on health.

Information to patients: what is on the political agenda for 2008?

The European Life Science Circle organised on 6 December 2007 in the European Parliament in Brussels "The informed patient- What the European Union has to do" focused on the right of accessing objective information for treatment and medication. Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, PES MEP and Mr Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, ALDE MEP co-chaired the event. A number of different stakeholders representing European institutions, the European Consumers’ organisation (BEUC), the European Patients’ Forum (...)