Newsletter December 2007

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 force (...)

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 Master (...)

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.

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

The European Network of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched a new edition of Choices Magazine.

On 3 December 2007, IPPF EN launched a new edition of Choices Magazine on the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Europe.
This year’s Choices focusses on the SRHR of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people in Europe. “IPPF European Network, as a sexual and reproductive health and rights organization, can and should reinforce its attention to LGBT issues by becoming more active and inclusive in its services and advocacy actions”, says Vicky (...)

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 (...)

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.

World AIDS Day: how institutions and advocates approached the event

World AIDS Day was celebrated on 1 December 2007 to remember the victims of the most terrific virus epidemics ever recorded. To date, 25 million people are died throughout the world and 33.2 million are living with HIV/AIDS. After exploring the activities undertaken by Health Commissioner Marcos Kyprianou at the European level, this article will highlight the campaigns undertaken by the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG), an EPHA member, in relation to the event.
Health Commissioner (...)

Trends in drug use across Europe

On 22 November 2007 the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) published the 2007 Annual Report on the use of drugs in Europe. The report presents a two-faced Europe with encouraging trends but some persistent problems.
The EMCDDA Annual Report 2007 sheds light on the situation of drug use and drug-related problems across 25 EU Member States and Norway and, when data were available, from Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. The outcomes reveal positive and negative (...)

*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 attempt (...)