Civil Society
Groups together issues dealing with Civil Society Dialogue, EPHA collaboration with other NGOs and networks, lobbying, fund-raising etc...
Please find all related articles below.
On 4-6 September, EPHA participated to the European Civic Days in La Rochelle (France) and intervened in a workshop on how NGOs contribute to the European construction.
These European Civic Days were organised by the European Civic Forum (created in 2005 by the association CIDEM – Civic Mindedness and democracy - and the French League of education). This event has the support of the European Commission’s “Europe for citizens” programme and the French Presidency. (...)
FEANTSA European Conference in cooperation with Shelter Cymru
People who are homeless can be housed: An insight into successful practices from across Europe- Cardiff, 13 - 14 November 2008
The FEANTSA European Conference will be an opportunity to:
Explore effective housing solutions for people who are homeless
Discuss the role of social housing operators and private landlords in providing housing for people who are homeless
Examine the potential of a justiciable (...)
The three year, European wide collaboration on sexual and reproductive rights for young people through the ’SAFE Project’ came to an end at a closing conference in Brussels on 8/9 October 2007.
http://www.ysafe.net/SAFE/index.php... The European Commission funded project, “Sexual Awareness for Europe (SAFE): A European Partnership to promote the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of young people”, was a partnership between the International Planned Parenthood (...)
Health Action International, an EPHA member, will hold its annual conference and assembly in Brussels on 12-14 October 2007.
This is advance notice of the HAI Europe annual general meeting.
This year it will be held in Brussels on Friday 12, Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 October.
There will be an Open Seminar featuring current European issues (e.g. DTCA, Pharmacovigilance, Patients’ organisations) on the Friday; members of the HAI Europe Association will be meeting on the Saturday and Sunday. (...)
EPHA is organising a training session on nutrition and health before the end of 2007.
The aim of the session is to identify ways to build links with research institutions and identify research groupd interested in working with civil society organisations on the field of nutrition and health.
The session will be an occassion for civil society organisations to deepen their understanding of nutrition and health and to strengthen their capacities to approach scientific questions.
Structure of (...)
EPHA is a partners of the STACS Project funded by the European Commission, DG Research. The purpose of the project is to support the active participation of civil society organisations in research projects.
The STACS (Science, Technology and Civil Society) project brings together a consortium of six organisations coordinated by the Fondation Sciences Citoyennes (FSC).
The overarching aim of the project is to improve civil society involvement in research policy issues. To achieve this, the (...)
The European Observatory on Homelessness (EOH), a member of the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless (FEANTSA), has published its 2006 reports on issues related to homelessness.
The outcomes of FEANTSA’s research on homelessness during 2006 are divided in two sections: European Updates and Europeam Thematic Reports.
European Updates 2006
Fifth review of statistics on homelessness in Europe
The report, builds upon earlier reviews, focuses on examining the (...)
EPHA attended the launch of the European Heart Health Charter. The launch was attended by the European Commissioner for Health, the World Health Organisation and several Members of the European Parliament.
The European Society of Cardiology and the European Heart Network, with the support of the European Commission and the World Health Organization - European Region, have developed the first European Heart Health Charter designed to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Europe which was (...)
The European Network for Smoking Prevention has published a 100-pages Directory of organisations working in the field of tobacco control.
The Directory aims to be a communication tool to facilitate contacts and exchange of information and experience between colleagues and health professionals at national and European levels.
The directory is classified by country. It gathers information from about 500 organisations in the 28 member countries of ENSP network. The World Health Organisation (...)
On January 2006 the Indian authorities rejected an application to patent filed by Novartis on the grounds that the drug was a new form of an old drug, and therefore was not patentable under Indian law.
In other countries where Novartis has a patent, the drug is sold at $2,600 per patient per month. In India, generic versions of this drug are available for less than $200 per patient per month.
Novartis is therefore trying to have the patent decision overturned so that it can sell the drug (...)
On 14th of November, 2006 the Malta Recourse Centre (MRC) held a Practices Exchange Meeting on Networking in Public Health, in Malta .
As part of the EPHA’s Central and Eastern European project, the MRC, in cooperation with Civic Alliance Latvia (CAL), held a meeting for a variety of Maltese organisations working on public health in order to discuss the scope for setting up a public health network in Malta.
The MRC has previously been successful in establishing an Anti-poverty (...)
As part of the EPHA activities in CEE countries, a questionnaire with questions about public health and networking was sent out targetting specific NGOs during 2006.
Out of the 16 organisations targeted with the questionnaire, 5 sent out a completed response.
Slovenia: “Centre for AIDS Prevention and Vulnerable Groups” confirms that in their country there is a public health platform of NGOs, although civil society participation in public health decission making is not yet (...)
This two day training was organised within the framework of the EPHA project "Building the health community across Europe" and in partnership with Vilans (a project partner).
The main organiser of this event is the European Forum for Primary Care (hosted by Vilans), with several local partners, including the Semmelweis University in Budapest.
The programme of the event can be downloaded below.
For more information, please contact Mr Diederik Aarendonk, Coordinator of the European Forum for (...)
The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) in co-operation with The Civic Alliance Latvia (CAL) organised the Conference ”Platforms of NGOs in Latvia - The bridge to the European Union” on 20th of April 2006 in Riga.
The aim of the conference was to organise a discussion forum for Latvian NGOs on participation issues in decision-making processes in EU institutions.
The Conference was divided into two sessions. In the first session the representatives from NGOs in Latvia and (...)
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 (...)
The Association of European Cancer Leagues in co-operation with the Swiss Cancer League and the German Cancer Society is organising the 4th European Conference Tobacco or Health.
It will take place in Basel (Switzerland) from Thursday, 11 October until Saturday, 13 October 2007. The conference will present an overview of what has been achieved and what still needs to be done en route to a tobacco-free Europe. The main objective is to analyse what the situation with tobacco control in (...)
On the 10 January 2007, the European Parliament hosted a British American Tobacco lobbying event where BAT presented information about its corporate social responsibility activities.
Many NGOs were invited to the stakeholder dialogue session as part of BAT’s 2006 Social Reporting process but most of them did not attend.
Before the holding of the event some Europe’s leading health organizations sent a letter of concern to the MEPs hosting the meeting in order to get it canceled.
Despite (...)
UPDATED with the report and presentations. Eurocare is together with the Socialist Group of the European Parliament organizing a seminar on the EU Alcohol Strategy on the 31st January 2007.
Access to the report of the seminar and presentations.
Keynote speakers will include European Commissioner for Health Markos Kyprianou (tbc), Dr. Peter Anderson (author of the Commission report “Alcohol in Europe”) and Dag Rekve from the World Health Organisation.
Place: European Parliament (...)
EPHA organised a workshop on Better Regulation as part of the Social Platform’s Annual Conference, "Renewing the guiding principles of the European Union" in Brussels on 5 December 2006.
The workshop entitled, "Protecting European Social Values through Better Regulation" was designed to give NGOs an understanding of the Better Regulation process and how it might effect their work.
Tamsin Rose, an independent health consultant, and Florence Berteletti-Kemp, EPHA Vice-President gave a (...)
The SPHERE project partners met in Montreux, in Switzerland on the 15th of November, prior to the EUPHA 14th Conference on Public Health.
A partner meeting of the project SPHERE (Strengthening Public Health Research in the EU) was held on the 15th November in Montreux, a day before the EUPHA (European Public Health Association) conference.
The broad objective of SPHERE is to assist in creating an “European Public Health Research Area” by describing public health research at (...)
Officially launched on the 27th October 2006, this network gathers 15 European NGOs working on health and development issues. EPHA is one of the Brussels-based partners.
Background information about the project
Although not comprehensive, the Health Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) continue to offer the best catalyst to push for increased action to improve health in developing countries.
As commitments signed by donor countries, they are an effective advocacy tool. With half of the (...)
The European Commission is to publish the much-awaited EU strategy on reducing alcohol-related harm on the 25 october 2006. Leading national and European non-governmental organisations urge the European Commission to resist alcohol industry pressure to abandon its alcohol harm reduction strategy.
Notably, the calls come from a variety of organisations working on public health, alcohol prevention, social issues, child protection, gender-focused organisations (women and men), road and traffic (...)
The Network of Estonian Non-profit Orgnaisations (NENO), in cooperation with EPHA, organised a Summer School on Networking, in Estonia from 8 to 9 September 2006.
The Summer School is organised annually for NGO’s in Estonia on current issues.
This year the Summer School focused on the ways of getting social and financial profit by delivering public services or developing enterprise.
The aim was to facilitate NGOs in following their mission and securing much-needed funding.
European Public (...)
The 9th European Health Forum will take place in Gastein, Austria from the 04 to the 8 October 2006. EPHA members will be well-represented and present during the Forum.
Under the theme “Health Sans Frontières”:
The European Federation of Nurses board member - G. Christensen - takes part in the plenary session dedicated to healthcare professional migration. They will also address a workshop on the future of healthcare;
Owen Metcalfe - The Institute of Public Health in Ireland, (...)
The European Aids Treatment Group organises a seminar on HIV/AIDS Treatments in Central and Eastern European Countries. It takes place in Prague on the 2-5 November 2006.
The seminar aims to raise awareness and share best practices about treatment experiences to NGOs, care providers and patients organisations and activists.
EATG also wants to learn more about the situation, difficulties, issues and questions regarding treatment and HIV/AIDS in Central and Eastern European Countries, so that (...)
On the 30 May 2006, EPHA organised a conference on health promotion in Liepaja, Latvia.
The conference was the main activity of Health Promotion week in Liepaja and the follow-up activity of Conference in Riga.
During the first part of the conference, experts from Latvian Union of Municipalities, Latvian Centre of Infectology and State Health Promotion Agency held presentations on promotion issues. The main idea was that health promotion includes - education, information, awareness (...)
EPHA Environment Network (EEN) is an international non-governmental organisation that advocates environmental protection to ensure the health and well-being of European citizens. The organisation’s registered offices are in Brussels where currently, the Secretariat is seeking to recruit a part-time Bookkeeper/Administrator (BA).
EPHA Environment Network offers an inspiring, creative and friendly working environment. The successful candidate will be able to function in a small-office, (...)
The EU-funded EMIP project - Implementation of mental health promotion and prevention policies and strategies in EU member states and applicant countries - brings together eight European networks and 12 national partners committed to sharing models of good practice on mental health promotion and prevention.
Overall objective
to build and support good practice in the development and effective implementation of mental health promotion and prevention policy and strategy in the Member States (...)
This EU supported project aims to examine the ways and means by which research priorities in the field of public health at the European level can be identified.
The SPHERE project started in January 2005, under the leadership of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom. EPHA is one of the partners together with the following organisations:
European Public Health Association (EUPHA)
National School of Public Health (Lisbon, Portugal)
National (...)
From 3-7 April, 2006, EPHA’s Regional Project Coordinator Agnese Knabe visited organisations in Slovenia, Slovakia and Poland regarding partnership creation within the EPHA EU funded-project activities.
In January 2006, EPHA launched a call for the expression of interest for partnership for organisations in new EU member states.
To support the approved applicants in implementing the proposed activities, EPHA’s project coordinator visited 4 organisations (Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland): (...)
From the 6 to 8 March 2006, a study visit with NGOs was organised in Estonia. The aim of the visit was to get to know how public health NGOs are working in Estonia and to establish mutual cooperation in order to strengthen the development of national platform on public health in Estonia.
Agnese Knabe and Ilze Murniece held meetings with representatives of 7 NGOs:
Network of Estonian Non-profit Organizations (NENO)
Tallinn Children’s Hospital Foundation
Estonian Blue Cross (...)
Updated with activities in Latvia - The EU-funded AIDS Action & Integration project brings together Central and Eastern European (CEE) NGOs working on HIV/AIDS and European networks to support the developmennt of NGO-based prevention and advocacy programmes in Central and Eastern Europe.
Led by the French NGO AIDES, an EPHA member, the project is implemented through exchanges of best practices and experiences. Since 2001, CEE-based NGOs, as well as European Organisations (ie AIDS Action (...)
The French National Association for the Prevention of Alcohol and Addictology (ANPAA) has recently launched a prevention campaign on alcohol consumption targeting entreprises.
Entitled ‘Preventing risks - our responsibility’, it aims to open a forum where all actors (eg employees, managers, healthcare professionals, and trade unions) can exchange best practice and debate over addictions and alcohol abuses at the workplace.
A forum has been set up on ANPAA website to stimulate discussion (...)
Mental Health Europe urges Member States of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Europe Region to take further action to implement the WHO Helsinki declaration and action plan on Mental Health.
In January 2005, during a Ministerial Conference on Mental Health co-organised by the WHO EURO and the European Commission, WHO member States signed a Declaration and Action Plan on Mental Health.
It is expected that countries would then integrate the priorities for action into national policies.
In (...)
On 8 December 2005, the Commission adopted a Green Paper entitled "Promoting healthy diets and physical activity: a European dimension for the prevention of overweight, obesity and chronic diseases".
The Commission’s Green Paper on the promotion of healthy diets and physical activity is the first step in an extensive public consultation on how to reduce and to prevent the rising levels of obesity and associated chronic diseases in the European Union (EU).
In order to prepare its response to (...)
The final report of the workshop can be downloaded below.
The Social Platform held a two-day conference on ’Building social policy on fundamental rights’ 11-12 October 2005 in Brussels.
Within the framework of the conference, EPHA organised a workshop on Wednesday 12 October from 09.00 - 1300 on the internationally recognised right to health and the right of access to healthcare which is guaranteed by Article 35 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
This (...)
Mental Health Europe has started implementing a project funded by the European Commission Directorate General Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. Entitled ’Good Practices for combating social exclusion of people with mental health problems’, it aims to focus on existing best practices that can contribute to tackling the inequalities that people with mental health problems encounter.
The partners of the project met for the first time in Brussels from 14-15 October 2005. The (...)
Mental Health Europe (MHE-SME), EPHA member, together with the Centre for Health and Ethics in Society (CHES) organises a roundtable entitled “Towards an EU mental health strategy: health stakeholder perspective”, on the 23 November 2005 in Brussels.
The roundtable is meant to follow-up the Green paper on Mental Health, published by the European Commission in October.
It aims to:
provide information and analysis on the proposal;
and allow participants to comment on the Green (...)
The EU has a number of policies designed to reduce disparities across the Union and to promote greater economic, social and territorial cohesion. Financial support is targeted at the national level through the Cohesion Fund, and the regional level through four Structural funds. In both cases, EU money is directed towards the poorest and most disadvantaged countries or regions.
All structural funds are governed by a specific EU Regulation, only one of which - the ERDF Regulation - explicitly (...)
A new short report published today by Health Action International (HAI) Europe, an EPHA member, titled "Does the European Patients’ Forum represent patient or industry interests? A case study in the need for mandatory financial disclosure" reveals how the European Patients’ Forum legitimacy has been taken for granted despite its lack of transparency and close links to the pharmaceutical industry.
HAI Europe argues that the case of the European Patients’ Forum demonstrates the need for (...)
Mental Health Europe organised on Friday 4 February 2005 a training seminar entitled “European policies towards the integration of people with mental health problems”. The main objective of the seminar was to make NGOs in the new EU Member States familiar with EU policies that are relevant for people with mental health problems.
The seminar was organised within the framework of the EU Co-ordination Non Discrimination Programme, which coordinates fight against discrimination and (...)
During the first part of 2005 the Parliament will handle the European Commission’s proposal regarding an Alcohol strategy.
IOGT-NTO, an EPHA member, co-organised a seminar in this issue on 26 January 2005, hosted by MEP Mrs Cecilia Malmström.
Mr Kari Paaso, the representative of DG Sanco who works on the strategy, presented the EC’s position. There were also various guests who gave their perspective on the issue.
Speakers included Dr Michel Craplet (medical advisor of ANPAA, France) who (...)
As part of a DG SANCO funded project, EPHA is working towards developing capacity among health NGOs and organisations in the new Member States.
The goal is to foster the development of national platforms of NGOs in each country that will support networking at a national level and provide greater integration of CEE structures into European networks and activities.
On 24-25 January 2005, a capacity building workshop was organised in Ljubljana in partnership with EPHA Environment Network and (...)
On 25-26 November, Anna Jassem participated in a study visit to Riga organised by the Platform of European Social NGOs. During the visit, she had the opportunity to meet with several Latvian NGOs working on public health issues.
The main topic of discussion was the establishment of a Latvian NGO health platform and the training seminar that EPHA is planning to organise in Latvia in February 2005. These activities are part of the EPHA’s EU funded project devoted to developing the capacity (...)
Tamsin Rose, EPHA’s General Secretary, gave a presentation as part of a two days conference titled "Social Policy Agenda 2006-2010: What Future for European Social Policy?" organised by the Social Platform on 20-21 October 2004 in Brussels.
Speakers included ministers, members of the European Parliament, government officials, members of the Commission agencies, Commission officials and NGO representatives.
The first day of the conference, the Social Platform presented two main documents: (...)
The ’Open Method of Coordination’ or OMC is a new mechanism of policy development at EU level. Initially used for social protection issues, the European Council has decided to extend the OMC to health and longterm care.
The OMC is an instrument which involves ’soft law’ and the setting of targets and indicators on health. This is an opportunity for NGO advocacy and to track progress made by governments towards health goals.
The EPHA Secretariat has developed a briefing note on the OMC and (...)
During the Dutch Presidency, there will be an informal Health Council on 9-10 September 2004 which will focus on the theme of the ’Health and the Internal Market’.
In connection with the Health Council, a major international conference is being organised in the Hague, Netherlands on 7-9 September 2004. Entitled Shaping the EU Health Community: Balancing Health, Social Development and Internal Market it is being organised by the Netherlands Institute for Care and Welfare (NIZW).
EPHA is a (...)
EPHA and EEN are launching an EU funded project to boost collaboration with non-governmental organisations based in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. Our goal is to create an extensive and comprehensive online directory of NGOs working on health and environment issues that is searchable and freely available on the internet.
The Directory lists pan-European networks active on health issues and national NGOs in each of the CEE, SEE and NIS countries.
Consult the Directory
If you want (...)
EPHA member organisations active on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) are looking to create a new platform which would bring together the different disciplines and practices.
The platform would initially focus on raising the profile of CAM issues in the European health agenda by campaigning for a CAM seat on the EU Health Policy Forum. This could lead to joint responses to consultation opportunities on EU legislation and shared advocacy campaigns.
Initial partners include the (...)
On 15 June 2004, the Public Health Alliance Ireland has launched a publication outlining health inqualities and the links to other forms of social and economic disadvantage.
Health in Ireland: An unequal Statebrings together information and evidence from a wide variety of sources. The Public Health Alliance Ireland is an independent alliance whose mission is to work together for a healthier society by improving health and challenging health inequalities
The report highlights three key (...)
EPHA General Secretary, Tamsin Rose participated in a conference organised by the Open Society Institute Networks in Bled, Slovenia in April 2004.
The theme of the presentation was an introduction to EU funding mechanisms and a subsequent workshop on how to prepare a project proposal.
EPHA co-organised a workshop on "Citizens and Health" at the EU Open Health Forum organised in Brussels on 17 May 2004.
EPHA General Secretary, Tamsin Rose made a presentation on Equal access to health
EPHA member organisations European Council for Classical Homeopathy (ECCH) and the European Shiatsu Federation made a presentation on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM).
EPHA member, EuropaDonna made a presentation on Patients and citizens’ rights.
The DG SANCO website of the (...)
Tamsin Rose participated in a Roundtable discussion in Brussels on 27 February 2004 to discuss the High-level Reflection Process (HLRP) on patient mobility.
Organised by the GPC and CHES/Madariaga Foundation the meeting was timed to provide input into the Commission’s response to the HLRP, due in March 2004. The background paper for the Roundtable.
EPHA briefing note on the HLRP
The Final report of the HLRP.
EPHA briefing on the results of the (...)
EPHA General Secretary Tamsin Rose made a presentation on 12 December 2003 on the advantages and disadvantages for NGOs of submitting projects for EU funding.
The conference was organised in Sofia, Bulgaria by the Ministry of Health, the Partnership for health consortium and supported by DG SANCO. The conference was opened by the Bulgarian Minister of Health and was designed to encourage local NGOs to participate in the EU Public Health Programme. More than 80 health professionals and NGOs (...)
50 Breast cancer advocates from 26 of EUROPA DONNA’s 32 member countries in Europe completed a breast cancer advocacy training course from November 21-23 2003. They learned about the latest developments in breast cancer research and treatment as well as advocacy techniques that can be used to influence public health policy. The training highlighted the fact that breast cancer diagnoses are increasing throughout the EU although mortality rates have fallen through improved screening and (...)
On Wednesday 19 November 2003, EPHA organised a conference in Brussels on behalf of the European Commission, DG EuropeAid. The event brought together 120 participants ranging from Commission officials, Ministries of Foreign Affairs from EU and CEE countries, international organisations and NGOS from the EU and Belarus.
The conference Belarus: our future neighbour, Building civil society through partnership reviewed the results of the EU funded Civil Society Development Programme (2000-2003) (...)
Tamsin Rose made a presentation on behalf of EPHA at the AGM of the European region of the Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA).
The presentation highlighted what a ’Europe of health’ might be like, and how EU policies and ECJ judgements impact on national healthcare systems.
On the occasion of World AIDS Day (1st December), the International Centre of Health Protection - HERA the network of Russian health NGOs and the first Russian NGO to become EPHA member, will hold a press conference with Russian media on the topic: "When You Write about Sexual Health", as well as special events to be carried out by members of HERA all over the country.
HIV and AIDS are global problems. Every minute 6 people become infected with HIV and every 5 minutes one of those infected (...)
The Summer 2003 issue of the ’Eurohealth’ newsletter includes an editorial by Professor Martin Mckee, Paul Belcher and EPHA General Secretary Tamsin Rose.
’Eurohealth’ is a joint publication of the European Observatory on Health Care Systems and LSE Health & Social Care.
The authors analyse the Convention results on public health and analyse the possible changes in EU competence in health during the (...)
A conference "for a European drug policy", hosted by the Greens / European Free Alliance (EFA) group at the European Parliament on 17th September 2003 , was attended by EPHA staff. This conference was organised by Alima Boumedienne-Thiery MEP.
An EPHA member, Arnaud Watson-Simon, from AIDES, was one of the speakers.
The objective of this conference was to support the participation of civil society in the definition and promotion of a European drug policy.
The conference was divided into (...)
"The food case", a conference supported by the Greens & the European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) was held in the European Parliament on 18th September 2003.
The aim of the conference was to explore a strategy for consumer protection, and discuss how to improve the quality of food in Europe.
There was great emphasis that quality meant more than hygiene, but rather the culture of food.
The four themes for discussion were:
The precautionary principle or liability - two strategies for (...)
A member of EPHA Secretariat participated in the study visit to the Czech Republic organised by the Working Group on Enlargement of the Social Platform, on 18-20 September.
The visit included meetings with representatives of the Czech Institutions (government and parliament), the European Commission Delegation and Czech NGOs.
Promotion of capacity-building amongst Czech NGOs and networking were the main objectives of the visit.
EPHA came back with useful contacts which have provided a (...)
Tamsin Rose, EPHA’s General Secretary ran a one day training seminar in Cyprus for NGOs, civil society and health professionals on ’Health in the EU’ on Saturday 20 September 2003. The training was repeated on Sunday 21 September with Turkish language interpretation. 50 people attended the training seminars which was funded by the EU Civil Society Programme in Cyprus. The discussions covered health rights in international treaties, EU decision-making processes, health in EU institutions and (...)
The Health Development Agency (NHS), a member of EPHA, is one of the partners of the project "Comprehensive Database of Health Promotion Policies, Infrastructures and Practices" to be launched in the European Parliament in Strasbourg next Tuesday 23rd September.
This project, sponsored and largely funded by DG SANCO, includes a new web-based resource and discovery tool for the development of health promotion in the EU and beyond: HP Source.
The speakers include Fernand Sauer (Director of (...)
Mental Health Europe launched the results of one of its projects at a press conference on 8 July in the European Parliament.
The EU-funded project, "Mental Health Promotion and Prevention Strategies for Coping with Anxiety, Depression and stress-Related Disorders in Europe" was been carried out by a consortium of three sectors, each being responsible of one section of the life-cycle (Mental Health Europe: children, adolescents and young people, FIOSH: Working Adults, STAKES: Older People). (...)
Thirty-seven European groups signed up to the International Planned Parenthood - European Network’s petition to members of the Convention on the Future of Europe about the functioning of a participatory democracy under Title VI (namely Articles 33 to 37).
IPPF-EN says that these groups are concerned about Draft Article 37, which incorporates Declaration No 11 annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam on the recognition of the status of churches and non-confessional organisations and (...)
The EU Health Policy Forum met in Brussels on 6 June 2003. Agenda items included the links between health and enlargement, social policy and the environment.
The Forum recommendations on Health and Social Policy (drafted by EPHA and EPSU) were discussed in detail and a written procedure agreed that will lead to final adoption in July.
The Commission also provided an update on the Public Health Programme, more than 400 projects were submitted by the deadline of 16/05/2003, at least half of (...)
The second citizens Agora took place on the 12th-13th of June 2008. The Agora is originally a ancient Greek word for an open citizens debate, this being the idea behind the current Agoras.
The first Agora, as previously reported by EPHA, had the heady title of ’The Future of Europe’ and as many agreed was far too broad a topic. This second Agora was on the marginally slimmer topic of Climate Change.
Gerard Onesta, Vice-President of the European Parliament and architect of the Agora, opened (...)
The Health and Environment Primer provides an introduction to European environmental health policy. The booklet sketches out basic environmental health concepts and maps out recent developments in the environment and health arena. It covers European policy developments in an accessible and approachable text that combines history with information about relevant organisations and web-page references. The primer is a resource to aid people can refer to find out about the important environment (...)
Fifteen top contestants demonstrated on 13 June 2007 in Vienna what a combination of simple technologies and community organisation can do to protect the environment for the sake of children’s health.
The awards
The prizes were presented during the first morning of the inter-governmental meeting in Vienna to assess progress in Children’s Environment and Health Plans for Europe, known as CEHAPE.
The five categories for the awards were based on CEHAPE’s four regional priority goals plus a (...)
The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL, Europe) and the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE, U.S.) have set up a partnership which aims to raise the level of public and professional dialogue on the impact of the environment on human health.
The partnership will focus on:
Developing a stronger relationship with patients, health professionals and scientific organizations and individuals.
Furthering precautionary approaches to the management of environmental contaminants.
How (...)
This article has been updated with information regarding a new report entitled "Environmental Democracy" published in 2006.
The Aarhus Convention is an international agreement which lays down a set of basic rules to promote citizens’ involvement in environmental matters and improve enforcement of environmental law.
In particular, it grants the public access to environmental information, provides for participation in environmental decision-making, and allows the public to seek judicial (...)
The VOICE (Vulnerable Road Users Organisations in Cooperation across Europe) campaign headed by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and in which EPHA takes part, presented its awards for traffic law enforcement.
The EU member state administration with the best record is Finland, whilst the administration with the poorest record is Poland. These awards highlight the variable performance of EU member state Administrations in enforcing traffic laws and the effect this has on the (...)
In March 2006, EPHA Environment Network received the Children’s Environmental Health Recognition Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Children’s Health Protection.
The prize intends to recognise ongoing and sustainable dedication and notable leadership in protecting children from environmental health risks at local, regional, national and international level. It was awarded to EPHA Environment Network for a youth participatory project entitled "It’s (...)
Pasaules Dabas Fonds, a Latvian environmental organisation, in association with WWF, is participating in the international Detox Campaign for a safer EU legislation on chemical products.
The campaign aims to warn the public that many everyday goods contain toxic chemicals that accumulate in human blood. These man-made chemicals may be carcinogenic, allergenic, or hormone disrupting.
Currently a new EU regulatory framework for chemicals is being drafted and European health and Environment (...)
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, (...)
The VOICE (Vulnerable road users Organisations In Cooperation across Europe) campaign headed by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and in which EPHA takes part, gave its second awards in October to SEAT (progress) and Audi (failure).
The two awards aim to highlight progress or failures made to reduce the impact of car fronts on vulnerable road users. Hence encouraging a better protection of all citizens, from the car makers themselves. It should also be noted that SEAT and Audi (...)
The European Commission has launched an on-line consultation on the revision of the 1991 Directive on Plant Protection Products.
The Directive 91/414/EEC establishes a positive list of active substances for the use in plant protection products, which have been evaluated to be safe for humans and which do not present an unacceptable risk to the environment. Only products on this list can be authorised in Member States except where transitional arrangements apply.
In 2001, the Commission (...)
The Commission is launching a wide consultation on its Communication Towards a European Strategy for Nanotechnology in which it proposed an integrated and responsible approach for developing nanosciences and nanotechnologies in Europe.
Nanotechnology is a new approach to research and development for controlling the fundamental structure and behaviour of matter at the level of atoms and molecules. Applications are emerging in many different areas such as health care, information (...)
The European Commission has produced a Handbook on Green Public Procurement.
It explains in clear, non-technical terms how public purchasers, such as schools, hospitals and national and local administrations, can take into account the environment when buying goods, services and works.
Each year public authorities spend some 16% of EU GDP, around 1,500 billion Euro, on goods, services and works. If they opt for environmentally sound goods, services and works, they will help the EU reach (...)
Around 60 people took part in the EEN survey on health and environment during Green Week, 1-4 June 2004. The results, showed that visitors were both knowledgeable and concerned about children’s environmental health. Many were in favour of greater restrictions on industry.
The vast majority of the 56 respondents knew that childhood cancer was increasing and half were aware that asthma was the biggest cause of children missing school and hospitalisations. Cancer, asthma and allergy (...)
The European Commission has adopted a proposal to allocate 1 billion EUR from the reserves of the European Development Fund (EDF) to improve access to water and sanitation for people in Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP).
This contributes towards deliver the Milenium Development Goal to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
1.1 billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion people do not have (...)
"Bridging the Gap": Information for Action will take place at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin on 28-30 April 2004. The conference, which is hosted by the Environmental Protection Agency of Ireland, is co-organised by the European Environment Agency, Copenhagen.
There will be sessions on environment and human health, climate change, impacts and adaptation, environmental impact assessment, biodiversity and land use, european environmental information needs.
Speakers will include:
UNEP (...)
The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) the 8th March exhorted members of the Competitiveness Council to work to restore the balance between the different objectives of sustainable development.
The EEB is very worried about the recent political trend to highlight ’competitiveness’ as a super-objective, given precedence over social and environmental objectives. In past statements from EU institutions in particular, environmental commitments and aims have been presented as a burden to growth (...)
Pesticide testing ahead for many state farmworkers. In the first week of December 2003, the US state Department of Labor and Industries is expected to adopt rules requiring blood samples from workers who handle certain pesticides.
The rules are aimed at protecting workers from a class of pesticides called organophosphates and carbamates. Both compounds affect the central nervous system by depressing cholinesterase, an enzyme that helps regulate the nervous system.
By 2005, the regulation (...)
The US government is lobbying the European Union on behalf of the US chemical industry to weaken new EU chemicals policy, says a new report by the Environmental Health Fund.
Read the report, HCWH’s press release, or a letter calling on the Bush Administration to stop this lobbying signed by 70 public interest groups, including Health Care Without Harm.
The new UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) will have a remit to study the long term health effects of low-level chemical and radiation exposure. This reflects a enw political priority and recognises the public concern about the health risks from use of mobile phones, industrial chemicals and pollution from landfill sites and incinerators. The HPA’s first five-year plan , states that exposure to chemicals and poisons isgreater in poor and disadvantaged areas and that children are be at (...)
A new report published by WWF explores the potential impact of the European Commission’s REACH strategy for regulating chemicals. In particular the report makes an economic analysis of the cost to industry of compliance with the regulation and the associated reduced health impact from stricter control of chemicals.
The research, undertaken by Dr David Pearce and Dr Phoebe Koundouri from the University College London concludes that the proposed REACH regime would produce net overall (...)
The UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution is proposing a radical reform of the way that chemicals are regulated. The report Chemicals in Products: Safeguarding the Environment and Human Health urges a more transparent and precautionary approach to chemical regulation than is currently being proposed by the EU (see related article).
Only a tiny fraction of chemicals on the market today have been assessed for long-term safety. The report proposes that computer programmes already (...)
An EU funded project to test the exposure to air pollution in cities has completed an initial pilot phase in Portugal. ’People’ project involved 500 volunteers wearing special equipment to monitor their personal exposure to the carcinogenic pollutant benzene as they went about their ordinary daily routines. The project is linked to the implementation of Directive 2000/69/EC on air pollution by benzene. The second stage of the project will involve volunteer citizens wearing monitoring (...)
On 11 July 2003 the European Commission is organising a consultation meeting on the newly published Environment and Health strategy (see earlier article).
The goal of the meeting is to discuss the workprogramme for 2003-2004, set out the parameters of the consultation exercise and to identify technical working groups on key issues.
The deadline for registering is 5 July 2003.
Svetlana Slesarenok of a women’s organisation called MAMA-86 in the Ukraine has first-hand experience of the privatisation of the water utilities in the seaport city of Odessa. She describes how the take-over by a French multinational took place, says why she is against it and what she proposed to European Water Initiative improve public control over public-private partnerships.
Poverty is increasing in the Ukraine, and one of the reasons is the huge price increases charged for water. At (...)
Non-governmental water experts, health advocates, local authority leaders and trade unions put up a unified front at the third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan, 16-23 March 2003. They unanimously rejected a report from the development banks calling for dams and privatisation, and called for investment for the poorest of the poor with appropriate technology and public control of privately-funded water projects.
The World Water Forum in March 2003 aimed to promote action on the UN (...)
On 22 September 2008, the Council of Europe has launched a series of podcasts aimed at explaining its work to the general public.
The audio files of around three to four minutes take the form of short interviews with experts working in different areas, and show the wide scope of activities undertaken by the Council, which is mostly known for its action on human rights.
The podcasts can be downloaded on the Council of Europe website and will also soon be available as MP3 files on external (...)
On 25 March 2008, the transparency group Alter-EU has accused the Commission of relying too heavily on business and industry lobbyists when drawing up EU legislation. In reaction, the Commission has said it will publish a list of individual experts who sit on its advisory groups by the summer. But, a European Parliament committee would like the EU to go further and called for a mandatory register of the estimated 15-20,000 lobbyists.
Background
The European Commission has long consulted (...)
The Slovenian EU Council Presidency has launched a portal for NGOs increasing the possibilities for them to play a role during the Presidency.
The Slovenian EU Council Presidency has launched a web portal for NGOs outlining and facilitating NGO interventions to the Slovenian Presidency.
The basis for NGO involvement in the Presidency is outlined in the Agreement between the Government communication office and web portal Predsedovanje.si which details the communications envisaged before (...)
German car manufacturers BMW, Daimler and Porsche were disgraced when they were named winners of the ‘Worst EU Lobbying’ Award 2007. The German Atomic Forum was also named and shamed with a special prize for ‘Worst EU Greenwash’.
Winner of the Worst EU Lobbying Award 2007
BMW, Daimler and Porsche – nominated together in the worst EU lobbying category – gained more than 30 percent of the votes. Their joint lobbying offensive designed to water-down and (...)
Two years after European Transparency Initiative, the European Commission is about to launch the first-ever EU lobbying disclosure system. Unfortunately, no major improvements have been announced on the side of the European Parliament.
Following the European Transparency Initiative launched in 2005, the European Commission proposed in March 2007 to set up a voluntary register of lobbyists active in Brussels. Lobbyists and lobbying associations signing up to the register are required to (...)
Health and Migration in the EU - better health for all in an inclusive society
A major initiative of the Portuguese Presidency in the field of health, has been the conference "Health and Migration in the EU - better health for all in an inclusive society", held in Lisbon on 27 and 28 September.
The conference aimed at mobilizing Member States, national and international organizations, and some NGOs, to discuss proposals for interventions that would promote health, prevent disease, and (...)
Procedure for dialogue with Stakeholders unveiled for DG SANCOs advisory scientific committees.
The European Commission, DG SANCO, launched a new brochure to answer usual citizen’s questions about their rights as consumers, on July 2007.
The publication, entitled Your rights as a consumer: How the European Union protects your interests, is intended to help citizens learn more about what the EU is doing for European consumers, how it is protecting consumer’s rights, and how to uphold their rights in case of a problem.
The brochure presents clearly and briefly the main problems that (...)
The European Commission consulted the public between April and July 2007 on access to documents. The EC is planning to review the current legislation at the end of 2007. EPHA responded to the consultation.
Background information on the consultation
On 18th April 2007, the European Commission issued a Green Paper on public access to documents held by institutions of the European Community.
The right of access to documents is of crucial importance to the promotion and protection of public (...)
The Health-EU Portal of the European Commission is now available in 20 of the official EU languages, and has just sent out the "Zero edition" of its online newsletter.
The Health-EU Portal
The Health-EU Portal aims to provide European Citizens with an easy access to reliable, multilingual and comprehensive information on Public Health initiatives and programmes at EU level.
The Portal was launched in English in May 2006 at the health conference in Málaga, Spain. From May 2006 to March (...)
The European Commission published on 1 June 2007 a report on the results of the consultation to the EU Health Strategy, which received more than 150 contributions.
In its summary of the consultation, the European Commission acknowledges many of the contributions made by the health community. Several elements of EPHA’s contribution are taken into account in the summary of the consultation.
The general points made by the contributors to this consultation are listed below:
Support to the (...)
With the risk of a political "quick fix" of the Constitutional Treaty at the June 2007 European Council, NGOs call on a Social Europe and improved Civil Society Consultation.
On 21 and 22 June the European Council met for the last time under the German Presidency. The agenda included a point on the review of the EU Treaty.
The German Presidency had announced that they wanted to outline a precise "roadmap" for the review of the Treaty.
The risk of a political ‘quick-fix’at any price and (...)
This article has been updated regarding funding in equal opportunities.
After mobility in 2006, 2007 will emphasise equal opportunities for all as one of the main mottos of the European Union.
The initiative should lead to a European strategy addressing non-discrimination and equal opportunities for all.
The activities undertaken during the year will focus on discrimination based on race or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age, gender, sexual orientation or disability, all can be (...)
Brussels, 23 May 2007 - On the 25th March the European Union celebrates its 50th birthday and defines its vision for the next 50 years. European leaders must recognise that the health of European Citizens is key to achieving the mission and values of the EU.
The credibility of the EU’s positions on trade, environment, development and international health issues, rests upon a clear focus and priority on public health in the Berlin Declaration.
Speaking on behalf of the European Public (...)
*This article has been updated with the latest attempts of the German Presidency to revive the Constitution.*
The EU’s first-ever Constitutional Treaty agreed at the European Council in June 2004, was officially signed by EU Heads of State or Government on 29 October 2004 in Rome.
Endorsement of the European Parliament
On 12 January 2004 the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of the EU Constitution in a non-binding but politically symbolic vote. The report endorsing the (...)
In January 2007, the Commission officially launched two framework programmes for 2007-2013, where health-related issues are to be addressed: PROGRESS, the EU employment and social programmes and DAPHNE III, which aims to fight against violence.
PROGRESS
The PROGRESS programme (2007-2013) has a budget of over €700 million and will offer core funding for social European-level NGOs. However, a lot of the budget is committed expenditure.
PROGRESS will incorporate the previous four action (...)
This article has been updated with information regarding:
10 tests for the German Presidency designed by Social NGOs
The German Presidency’s Development Priorities
Future Presidencies of the European Union
Germany has taken over both the EU presidency and the Presidency of the G8 on the 1st January 2007.
The German EU presidency’s website will be launched on the 1st January 2007 together with an ambitious programme that, according to Ms Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, will (...)
On 13 - 17 November 2006, the European Commission organised the first edition of the European Development Days. The event aimed at enhancing public awareness about development cooperation and strengthening the effectiveness of the European Union’s development assistance.
The 2007 edition was particularly focused on Africa and the need for Europe to deliver more, better and faster aid in view of the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Within the Development Days, the (...)
On 12 October 2006, The Commission published a Communication on "The Demographic future of Europe - from challenge to opportunity" in a bid to address the issues associated with an ageing population.
Europeans are living longer and having fewer children, a situation which could reduce the European population by 48 million between now and 2050. Falling birth rates and raising life expectancy are just two of the reasons behind European demographic changes which are expected to have major (...)
The EU’s current transparency drive challenges national governments with the new requirement to fully disclose information on recipients of EU structural funds.
Member States are now required to publish detailed data on the recipients, projects and amounts of structural aid cash they receive from the EU.
As of October 2006, a website listing the beneficiaries of the EU Structural Funds is publicly available.
Unless applicants of EU aid agree to provide full openness, they risk losing their (...)
*UPDATED with the results* Corporate Europe Observatory, LobbyControl, Spinwatch and Friends of the Earth Europe launch the Worst EU Lobbying Award 2006 which aims to identify the most dubious influence lobbying.
The 2006 edition of the Worst Lobby Award plans to grant a double Prize:
the worst EU lobbying, awarded for the lobbyist or lobby group using the most deceptive, misleading, hypocritical and irresponsible tactics. The winner is ExxonMobil for continuing to manipulate the EU (...)
The biggest ever pan-European debate of all 25 EU Member States has been launched to find out what Europe’s citizens want from Europe and which issues matter to them most.
From January to April 2007, 25 national consultations take place at Member State level to discuss the overarching question “What is needed to achieve the Europe we want?”
The Final Consultation in May 2007 is held in Brussels as an intense debate with a small number of citizen volunteers from the national (...)
"Listen, communicate and go local" are the three themes of Margot Wallström, who presented on the 20 July 2005 the new European Commission Action plan for communication.
Against the backlash of the French and Dutch "no" to the Constitutional Treaty, the Commission vice-president of the EC is proposing 50 pragmatic actions aimed at improving its ability to communicate effectively to citizens (and voters).
Wallström plans a better use of the EC resources with:
a better coordination and (...)
European Parliamentarians are considering creating regular ’agoras’, or fora for citizens to debate draft laws, in an effort to bring citizens closer to the EU.
The move follows rejection of Europe’s proposed Constitutional Treaty in 2005. The push for ’agoras’ was initiated by the parliament’s vice president, French Green MEP Gerard Onesta.
Under his proposal, the parliament would organise five or six fora per year, with a total of 1,800 participants discussing current legislative issues. (...)
**The article has been updated with recent debates, plus the launch of the internet forum.** The European Commissioner Margot Wallström launched its Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate, on the 13 October 2005. It aims to lay the ground for a strong debate about European Union’s future.
Background to Plan D Against the backdrop of the French and Dutch No to the constitutional treaty and the impossible agreement on the budget in June 2005, Plan D aims to open up a debate built on a (...)
*Latest update: adoption by the European Parliament of David Hammerstein Mintz report calling to increase Council transparency*
The decision-making process in the European Council is often seen as not being transparent. The European Parliament, the European Ombudsman and the Civil Society Contact Group are acting to end secrecy and lack of transparency in the European Council decision-making processes.
The European Parliament campaign MEPs Chris Davies, Nigel Farage, Timothy Kirkhope, Jean (...)
On 11 July 2006, EPHA attended a hearing of stakeholders concerned by certain questions addressed in the European Transparency Initiative. The hearing was organised by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), at the request of and in close cooperation with the European Commission (EC).
Participants included representatives of civil society organisations, consultancies, business sector lobby groups, law firms and think tanks, as well as the EC, the EESC and the office of the (...)
As of June 2006, Council of Minister meetings are to be televised, in a bid to increase the overall transparency, accountability and credibilty of the EU institutions.
The UK has withdrawn its opposition to the new transparency procedures at Council level, ending the European Union tradition of secretive, closed-door ministerial meetings.
EPHA welcomes the new move of the EU Council of Ministers to change their own practices, which is key both for the credibility of the EU Council, as well (...)
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 (...)
Five MEPs (Robert Navarro FR PES, Jean-Luc Bennahmias FR Greens/EFA, Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou FR EPP-ED, Luigi Cocilovo IT ALDE and Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann FR GUE ) have presented a written declaration on the statute for a European association and the promotion of an active European citizenship.
If this declaration collects the signatures of half of European Parliament’s representatives, it will become a Parliament official position. This initiative comes timely with the debates on the Plan (...)
After Austria, Finland will hold the rotating presidency of the European Union between July and December 2006.
Future Presidencies of the European Union
Both countries agreed on common issues that require their joint attention, but also set out their specificities: Helsinki plans to target the impact of other policies on health, active ageing and health in the working life.
Finland’s main themes: a healthy workforce and health in all policies (...)
A Roundtable on Health in the 7th EU Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7) was held on the 28 March 2006 at the Madariaga Foundation in Brussels.
The Roundtable had the aim of gathering opinions from stakeholders on the third "pillar" of the FP7-programme: optimizing health care delivery.
The background to this event was the current Commission proposal on the future 7th Framework Programme on Research which addresses health as one of its themes.
Lara Garrido Herrero gave a (...)
The European Commission Directorate General on Research has set up a directory to collect data on ’who’s who’ in the area of science and society in Europe.
The aim is to produce an online database where potential project partners would be registered, in order to further improve the link between science and society.
Although the "who’s who" is not online yet, stakeholders that have an interest in research can contact DG Research to be added to the Directory.
This Directory (...)
On the 24-25 April 2006, the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament organises a forum with civil society organisations.
The objective is to debate on the future of the European Constitution in line with the ’reflection period’. It intends to discuss and define as well European values and priorities of the European Union.
Given that a high attendance is expected, the forum will take place in the hemicycle of the European Parliament.
Contact person: Margit Von Der Heyden (...)
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 (...)
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 (...)
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 (...)
**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 (...)
*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 (...)
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 (...)
Recently, the European Commission published two calls for proposals in the area of Science and Society under the Sixth Framework Programme.
Science Shops
The objective of the call is to contribute to universities’ mission of sharing knowledge outside the academic sphere. It mainly targets local civil society, universities and organisations involved in the training of students.
The call requires the use of specific support actions (SSA) and coordination actions (CA). Participants should (...)
Corporate Europe Observatory, LobbyControl, Spinwatch and Friends of the Earth Europe launched the Worst EU Lobbying Award 2005 aimed to vote for the "2005 most intrusive case of corporate lobbying in the European Institutions in Brussels".
The organisers selected 10 nominees on the basis of their investigations of European lobby efforts in 2005 throughout media reports and publications. In 2006, they expect to allow a broad range of stakeholders to suggest their own nominations.
Ten (...)
The European Ombudsman has issued a new booklet on the European Code of Good Administrative Behaviour.
The European Code of Good Administrative Behaviour was adopted by the European Parliament on 6 September 2001. This code guides the EU insitutions and bodies, their administrations and officials, in their relations with the public. The code ensures, among other things, that requests and complaints are dealt with on a non-discriminatory basis, forwarded to the correct people and answered (...)
This article has been updated with EPHA’s response to the Consultation (attached).
The Commission adopted on 5 July a proposal for Community Strategic Guidelines entitled “Cohesion Policy in Support of Growth and Jobs: Community Strategic Guidelines, 2007-2013”, setting priorities on the use of the Structural and Cohesion Funds for the period 2007-2013, which includes investment in health.
The draft guidelines present a "healthy workforce" as one of the objectives of cohesion (...)
Background
Lobbying is a booming growth industry in Brussels. Estimates of how many lobbyists haunt the corridors of the EU institutions in Brussels vary from 15 000 to 20 000. Of these, according to the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), 70% represent corporate interests, 20% regions, cities and international organisations, and only 10% citizens’ interests.
The large lobby industry in Brussels has gained considerable power and influence over policy making, and especially corporate (...)
On 6 April 2005 the Commission adopted a proposal for a programme to encourage active citizenship in Europe entitled ’Citizens for Europe’. The programme will cover the period 2007-2013 and has a total budget of EUR 207 million.
’Citizens for Europe’ will take over from the current programme which will come to an end in 2006. The proposal for the new programme aims to address one of the key issues on the EU agenda at the moment: the increasing gap between citizens and the EU (...)
Mrs Zsuzsanna Jakab begun working as the first Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), in March 2005.
Objectives of the ECDC
Speaking at the European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) Committee hearing on Monday 10 January 2005, she asserted very clearly 4 broad functions for the future ECDC :
Organising and coordinating the collaboration between EU institutions, Member States and other partners such as the World Health (...)
During its plenary session of 11 January 2005, the European Parliament voted to re-elect Nikiforos Diamandouros as European Ombudsman with 564 out of a total of 643 votes cast.
Mr Diamandouros has served as European Ombudsman since January 2003, following the retirement of the Union’s first Ombudsman, Jacob Söderman and his new mandate will run until 2009.
The European Ombudsman is empowered to receive complaints from any citizen of the Union or any natural or legal person residing in a (...)
An Information Day on the European Public Health Programme (2003-2008) will take place on Thursday, 3 February 2005 in Luxembourg.
During the meeting, the Commission will present its annual Work Plan 2005 for the implementation of the Programme.
The 2005 Call for Proposals was published on the 17 January on DG Sanco’s website.
The deadline to present proposals is the 15 April 2005.
As part of the programme of the Information Day, the Commission will held several workshops to guide (...)
As part of the Act4europe campaign, the Civil Society Contact Group is preparing a handbook for NGOs on the ratification of the Constitutional Treaty.
The handbook will include sectoral assessments of the final text by the Contact Group members and information on what the state of play is in the different Member States.
There will be a section on national NGO views on the ratification process in their Member States, and the involvement of NGOs in the process: whether/how you are organising (...)
The area of Freedom, Security and Justice of the European Commission has published a call for proposals to support civil society in the ten Member States which acceded to the European Union on 1st May 2004, in the areas of the rule of law, democracy, fundamental rights, media pluralism and the fight against corruption.
Deadline for projects is the 15 February 2005.
Commission press release
Official call for proposals
Guidelines to the grant application (...)
The Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament organised last 25 November 2004 a hearing with civil society on the Constitutional Treaty.
The Civil Society Contact Group sent a letter to the Committee ahead of the hearing.
The letter calls for an amendment to the EP report which will strengthen the call for sufficient support to be made available for civil society organisations across the EU to engage their constituencies in ratification debates.
In addition to the joint (...)
The EU Civil Society Contact Group has published a handbook entitled ’The European Parliament 2004-2009 and European Civil Society: a guide for partnership’.
The guide contains contributions from the six member sectors of the Contact Group (social, development, human rights, environment, women, culture) and introduces the policy areas they work on as well as their views on the key role the European Parliament has to play in these areas.
It also includes overviews of the vast expertise (...)
The European Commission is undertaking a consultation to identify ’thematic domains’ for future European support under the 7th Framework Programme.
The European Commission is using the following three criteria in order to identify which thematic domains will be included in the proposal for the 7th Framework Programme.
Contribution to EU policy objectives
The research topic must generate new knowledge to meet societal needs and catalyse the delivery of a European policy objective(s), (...)
In a debate hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on 9 November 2004, representatives of all sectors of civil society met with MEPs Íñigo Mendez de Vigo (EPP-ED, ES) and Richard Corbett (PES, UK).
This was an opportunity for civil society to comment on the Draft Report of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) on the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (2004/2129(INI)).
The Draft Report will now be finalised and the final version will be debated (...)
The Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission issued on October 2004 the call for proposals EAC/68/04: "Support to non-governmental organisations and associations and federations of European interest 2005".
The deadline for submission of proposals is the 30th November 2004.
Thematic areas:
To promote and disseminate the values and objectives of the European Union;
To bring citizens closer to the European Union and its institutions and to encourage them to (...)
The European Court of Justice has upheld the opinion of the Advocate General that residency rights can derive from the private provision of health services.
The United Kingdom Home Office refusal to allow a Chinese woman and her Belfast-born daughter to live permanently in Britain has been declared illegal under European Union law.
European Court judges acknowledged that the woman, Man Levette Chen, deliberately had her child in Belfast to win UK residency rights for herself. But that did (...)
The newly elected European Parliament numbers 732 representatives from all 25 EU Member States. In the 1999-2004 Parliament there were 7 political groups which are now being revised as a result of the electoral success or failure of certain parties. Most of the MEPs have already aligned themselves with one of the political groups.
More information about the composition and political approach of the groups can be found in the attached briefing (...)
The Dutch Presidency has released a publication on health in Europe entitled ’How do we do?’. The document provides health data and examples from across the EU but with special reference to the Netherlands.
This booklet looks at health in the EU from a Dutch perspective. If possible, data is presented for the new EU and compared to the Netherlands. Chapter one deals with aspects of health status. Chapter two focuses on determinants of health. The third chapter is dedicated to (...)
Lifestyle working party
On 2nd June 2004, DG Sanco made public the mandate of the Lifestyle Working Party (LWP).
Mandate of the Working Party in Lifestyle
Working Party on European Community Health Indicators
The WP on European Community Health Indicators published in June 2004 the draft list of recommended ‘First Phase Core Indicators’ (shortlist).
For more information on DG Sanco’s working parties, please read EPHA’s related article "Working Parties for the EU Public Health (...)
Mr David Byrne, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, gave a speech in the European Health Managers Association (EHMA) Annual Conference in Berlin on the 23rd June 2004.
The speech, titled "Enabling health - Empowering citizens", mentions some of the Commission achivements on health of the past years and emphasizes the necessity of empowering people to assume responsibility for their health.
Byrne also gave a speech in June on "The role of diet: How to inform consumers" (...)
EU leaders concluded the Brussels Summit on 18 June 2004 by reaching agreement on the text of the new Treaty which provides a Constitution for Europe.
Currently the EU is governed by the Nice Treaty, signed in December 2000 and which came into force in February 2003. The New Constitutional Treaty will, if ratified, enter into force in 2009.
The Irish Prime Minister stated:
"The Constitutional Treaty brings the Union’s basic law into one document for the first time. It reflects the needs of (...)
The first European Parliament elections in the enlarged EU were marked by voter apathy and punishment of national ruling parties.
The turnout fell even lower than the 1999 elections. Just 45.5% of voters filled out ballots, with low participation rates in many of the 10 new Member States where an average of 26.4 % of people bothered to exercise their electoral options. The lowest turnout was in Slovakia, where fewer than 17% cast their votes.
The overall balance of the 732-member (...)
In preparation for IGC Focal points meeting on 4 May 2004, the Irish Presidency has published a new draft (CIG 73/04) of the Constitutional Treaty based on Document CIG 60/03 ADD1, incorporating changes to the Naples text of December 2003.
However, the Presidency emphasized that this new document is not an official proposal and that issues related to Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) still need to be worked out. But no new concerns could be tabled by Member States.
The next IGC meetings (on (...)
1st May 2004 represents a both historical and symbolic landmark in the process of European integration.
Initiated more than 50 years ago, the concept of the European Union now includes some of the countries that once belonged to the former Communist block.
While undoubtedly a milestone in the ‘ever wider and closer’ European experiment, this new enlargement also raises a whole range of serious challenges particularly in terms of health and health policies.
Importance of Enlargement
In (...)
The European Commission has launched a response to the High Level Reflection Process on Patient Mobility aimed at clarifying health rights in Europe.
Although healthcare is a national responsibility according to the EU Treaty, there are a number of common challenges, such as the ageing society, increased needs and demands from citizens and rapid technological change. The Commission’s proposals include efforts to promote practical co-operation on the access to healthcare in another Member (...)
The European Commission has launched the 2004 Call for proposals for projects to be funded through the EU public Health Programme. This follows the adoption on 25 February of the 2004 Work plan which sets out the priorities for this year.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 26 April 2004.
An Information Day for potential project submitters covering the implementation of the Public Health Programme was held on Monday 22 March 2004, 9h30-16h00 at the European Commission in (...)
The Socialist Group of MEPs is organising a conference on ’Financing the Millennium Development Goals’ to be held on Thursday 15th April 2004 in the European Parliament, Brussels.
The conference will explore progress towards the MDGs, where we are going wrong in our financing of the Goals, and what signals we need to send to governments in order to improve both the levels and delivery of financing and to achieve our aims.
The Conference will focus on three main themes:
Goal 6: Combating (...)
A Eurobarometer survey shows that a large majority of people want their government to make concessions to secure agreement on a European constitution. The Commission funded poll was organised on 23/24 January 2004 following the collapse of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC). The survey shows that 77% of people in the 25 countries are in favour of the EU adopting a Constitution, with 15% opposed to the idea. More than 60% of people expect that without a constitution the European (...)
In a dialogue with civil society organised by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on 22 January 2004, Mr Jean-Luc Dehaene (former vice-president of the Convention)and Mr Andrew Duff MEP (Liberals, UK) exchanged their opinions about the results of the IGC with civil society representatives.
The general feeling was that the IGC should continue the debate on the basis of the final text presented by the Convention.
There are two more texts that amend the Convention’s one, the (...)
The InterGovernmental Conference ended without agreement during the day on Saturday 13 December 2003. The voting weights for Spain and Poland were the issue that brought the IGC to a standstill.
What does this mean for the draft Constitutional Text? Several commentators have noted that there is likely to be a period of reflection and stock-taking rather than a rush to re-start negotiations. It is expected that the Irish government will produce a status report in Spring 2004 but any (...)
On 9 December 2003 the Italian Presidency produced new compromise proposals to be used as a basis for the discussions in the European Council meeting of 12-13 December 2003. Following the Naples meeting of foreign ministers, the Presidency has produced an Explanatory memorandum (IGC Doc 60/03) and two new documents.
The first, CIG 60/03 ADD 1 covers issues that the Presidency feels that they have managed to integrate the comments of the various delegations and that this is now a balanced (...)
The ECJ has ruled that referring to various persons on an internet page and identifying them either by name or by other means constitutes processing of personal data by automatic means within the meaning of Community law.
The case was referred to the ECJ following an appeal by a Swedish woman against a 450 Euro fine by the Swedish Regulator. Mrs Lindqvist had set up an internet page on her personal computer with information for local parishioners about herself and her 18 colleagues. The (...)
EPHA and the European Respiratory Society organised a conference in Brussels on 27 November 2003 to discuss the EU competence in public health. The agenda featured speakers from the European Commission, WHO, Member States and a senior lawyer with experience of the Court of Justice
The conference examined whether the draft Constitutional Treaty provides the legal basis to achieve a ’high level of human health’ in the EU. The morning featured presentations about the health status of (...)
Europe risks losing the constitutional project during ratification if the IGC continues to ignore citizens’ concerns (a call for action by the act4europe campaign).
The Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) is entering the final stages of negotiating the new EU Constitution at the Conclave of Naples this week.
The Laeken mandate clearly stipulated that bringing the EU closer to its citizens was one of the main goals for this Constitutional Project. Yet NGOs and civil society are becoming (...)
FIPSU, the European organisation of the Finnish trade unions in the public sectors has published a report drafted by Jari Hellsten On the Legal Status of Public Services in the EU. PAges 9-13 of the report explicitly covers the way that EU law, particularly on the internal market, intrudes into health services of Member States which is specifically excluded from EU legislation. Addressing recent ECJ judgements on health services and patient mobility, the report provides an introduction on (...)
Those responsible for conducting the IGC need to know that NGOs and Unions are watching them closely and that we take a strong interest in a future Constitution that reflects people’s rights and interests.
After the more or less transparent process of the Convention, civil society will not accept "horsetrading" behind closed doors that risks to loose or not improve on rights, values, and policies we have fought for.
Please refer to the toolkit on the act4europe web site for further (...)
Please find below an extract of the 11th Bulletin of the Act4europe campaign, by Nico Berger, Coordinator of the Act4europe campaign, Social Platform.
The EU Presidency and our Foreign Ministers have been quite busy over the summer designing the IGC, and we were busy collecting information about their plans.
They will in fact make their decisions this coming weekend (interestingly enough before the other EU institutions have even finalised their opinions...).
The European Parliament is in (...)
A flash Eurobarometer survery released by the European Commission indicates that across the 25 EU/CEE countries only 45 % of those questioned had heard of the EU Convention. Highest recognition came from Greece, which had held the most recent EU Presidency. Lowest scores were found in the UK where 75 % of those questioned did not know what the Convention was.
But about 50 % of those interviewed would be interested in reading a summary of the constitutional treaty. Citizens were confused (...)
The Convention’s Forum on the Future of the European Union, which has enjoyed the technical support of the Commission, was supposed to close down last 18 July, when the Convention finished its works.
However, the Commission has decided that civil society that showed interest in following the process of the Convention by joining the Convention’s Forum, should be allowed to make use of this Forum during the Intergovernmental Conference (beginning in October 2003).
Futurum website
For more (...)
WHY A ’CONVENTION’?
As the historic enlargement of the EU to Central and Eastern Europe approached it became clear the need to reform the European Union and its Treaties in order to prepare for a Europe of 25 rather than 15 countries. In addition there was strong pressure to make the EU more democratic, transparent, and efficient. The time had come for a profound debate on the objectives and goals of the EU, its Treaties and its institutions.
In the Laeken Summit, 14-15 November 2001, (...)
On Wednesday 9 July, the Convention met in plenary session.
The previous draft of Part III (policies) dated 8 July, had not improved article 174 (ex 152) on public health. However, three interventions demanded changes on this article:
Antonio Vitorino pointed out the need to clarify the legal basis of public health, and he referred to the Commission’s amendment in this sense.
Pierre Lequiller supported Mr Vitorino’s intervention on public health.
Marietta Giannaku pointed out the (...)
Introduction by Giscard d’Estaing
Convention President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing started with a briefing on the reactions of the heads of Member states gathered in Thessaloniki to the Constitutional text.
He said that there had been ’possitive reactions’ and a recognition of the ’broad consensus’.
Giscard also said that the conclusions of the Council only reflected partially the athmosphere of the debate and the support of the Member States which was more than he had hoped for.
Then he (...)
On 17 June 2003 the Social Platform faced Jean-Luc Dehanene (vice-President of the Convention) with NGOs, Unions and think tanks.
In a one-day event national and European civil society representatives got together to assess the their advocacy campaigns on the EU Convention.
Jean-Luc Dehaene answered the questions from the floor focusing on what he presented as a suscessful Constitutional text.
Trying to cope with the reminders of ’what was not in’, Dehaene instead the participants to ’read (...)
The Civil Society Contact Group of the Social Platform brings together the four large NGO families - environment, social, human rights, development - and the ETUC, representing millions of people throughout Europe via their membership.
Jointly they aim to ensure that the views and interests of NGOs are heard within the process of shaping Europe’s future framework.
Please find below the agenda for the final event to mark the end of the Convention, to be held in Brussels on 17 June: the (...)
The Convention Plenary of 30-31 May 2003 covered Parts I, II and III of the new constitutional treaty. The issue of health was not addressed in Article I-3 despite numerous amendments from Convention members.
The latest EPHA briefing note on the discussions can be found here.
First Meeting of the Network of Competent Authorities: Health Information and Knowledge Strand Community Action Programme on Public Health, Luxembourg, 10 July 2003 (10.00 - 17.00).
For more information, please contact the European Commission, Filomena Lopo.
INCORPORATION OF THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE SOCIAL EUROPE WG INTO THE TREATY
The Convention Praesidium has prepared a note on how the conclusions of the Social Europe Working Group should be incorporated in the future treaty.
The original text was in French (at the end of this article).
We have translated to English the paragraphs that we think are most important for our activities.
Values to be inserted into article 2 of Part I: the Working Group and discussions in the plenary session have (...)
Please find below an EPHA presentation on ’EU Responsibilities and the Civil Dialogue on Health’.
The presentation was given by Tamsin Rose at the UK Public Health Association Annual General Meeting, in March 2003.
Find here the reports, minutes and related documents from the April plenary meeting of the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health.
The World Health Organisation Europe is to publish by the end of 2007 the Second Action Plan for food and nutrition for the European region. EPHA has responded to a consultation launched by WHO EURO in order to prepare the Action Plan.(response attached)
First Action Plan for food and nutrition for the European region
Main objectives of the draft Action Plan
On November 2006 in Istanbul WHO/Europe organized the European Ministerial Conference on Counteracting Obesity where the first draft (...)
EPHA attended a two-day EU/US transatlantic conference "Good practices: Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health", hosted by the European Commission in the framework of the European Platform for Action on the same topic.
The meeting was chaired jointly by Robert Madelin, Director-General, DG Consumer Health and Protection (SANCO) within the European Commission and Van Hubbard, US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).
Debra Platt Majoras, Chairman of the US Federal Trade (...)
On 20 July 2004, the Directorate General Health and Consumer Protection (DG Sanco) of the Euroepan Commission organised the first meeting of the Obesity Round Table, with the aim of providing a forum for open and informal discussions on approaches to tackle the obesity epidemic.
In his introductory statement, Robert Madelin, Director General and Chairman of the Round Table, underlined that obesity is to be considered as a core health issue and, as such, it will be a high priority for the (...)
More research and continued surveillance is still needed in key areas to address public concerns over the potential risks posed to human health and the environment by genetically modified (GM) food, says an updated position statement from the BMA’s Board of Science.
The BMA statement is prepared following a review of available evidence and takes account of a spectrum of views on the safety of GM food that were expressed at a round table meeting of experts.
Sir David Carter, Chairman of the (...)
A new analysis of the foods Americans eat finds that sugary snacks and sodas reign supreme over healthier options such as vegetables and fruit.
Gladys Block, professor of epidemiology and public health nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley, has quantified the types of foods the United States population eats and ranked them by the amount of calories they contribute.
Her findings, published in the June issue of the Journal of Food Chemistry and Analysis, reveal that three food (...)
The European Green party has launched a new campaign on to examine agriculture, food and nutrition policies in the EU.
The campaign is designed to provoke public debate and action on issues on key issues such as:
How to improve the safety of food without sacrificing quality and taste
How to prevent Europe’s agriculture and environment from being deliberately contaminated with genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
How to fish in a manner that does not destroy the oceans and coastal (...)
The US Department of Agriculture is proposing dietary advice that for the first time recognizes that a majority of Americans, 64 percent, are overweight and sedentary and need to eat less. Until now, the department’s Food Guide Pyramid has been aimed at the nation’s healthy population. Under the current proposals, recommendations for these more active people would continue to be available but would no longer be the central focus of government nutrition information.
The new recommendations (...)
Important annual conference of European regional stakeholders take place 6-9 October 2008 in Brussels.
The participation at the OPEN DAYS 2008 is free, and there will be 143 specialist seminars to choose from and a total of 15,000 seats available.
The OPEN DAYS seminars and debates will focus on four themes:
Innovating regions: Promoting research, technological development and innovation;
Sustainable development: Regional responses to climate change;
Cooperation and networking: Exchange (...)
The ’Quick Guide to EU Funds’ presents the new Community priorities, programmes and other funding opportunities available since 1 January 2007.
The Quick Guide to EU Funds presents selected programmes as a response to the demand for practical and comprehensive information in an easily accessible format. The guide presents the new Community priorities, programmes and other funding opportunities available since 1 January 2007.
The guide provides information regarding the different types of (...)
In 2007 EPHA commissioned an update of our 1995 publication "Public Health and the EU: an overview", now available in 20 languages, as part of the activities of our European project "EPHA’s project: Building the public health community across Europe".
The Executive Summaries can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.
"Public Health and the EU: an overview" is an introduction to the wide range of European Union (EU) activities that affect public health.
It aims to inform local, national (...)
European Commission DG SANCO has published three summaries on scientific opinions on the safety of tooth whiteners, sunbeds and nanotechnology intended for non-scientists. The publications are available from summer 2007.
European Commission DG SANCO aims with these publications to bring the results of the Scientific Committees closer to the public by providing summaries of the most relevant opinions in a format and language which can be easily understood.
There are three non-food (...)
Based on the 2003 European Quality of Life Survey, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) has published a more in depth report regarding Europeans’ participation in civil society.
The report entitled "First European Quality of Life Survey: Participation in civil society", provides an analysis of why some people are engaged in civil society and why others are not.
According to the report a total of 95% of Europeans participate in either (...)
The International Fellowship Programme (IFP) for Central and Eastern European (CEE) Foundations and NGOs invites applications and searches for host institutions for its third round, beginning in spring 2007.
The Programme offers foundation and NGO staff (young leaders as well as executives) from eight CEE countries the opportunity to work for up to 12 weeks in non-profit host institutions abroad.
The deadline for applications is Friday, 3rd November 2006.
Fellowships will take place (...)
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 (...)
The French Public Health Association (Société Française de Santé Publique, SFSP) has just published a proposal regarding financing Public Health Associations in France.
The proposal (in French only) comes right after the August 2004 de-centralising reform of French public health policy, which involves new national plans and a reform of the health insurance system.
The Public Health Association also demands more participation of the associative sector in the implementation of public health (...)
The Wellcome Trust has published a report on the state of public health sciences in the UK and made recommendations on measures to enhance the impact upon the public health.
A working group was convened to address public health sciences and how they relate to public health practice in the inter-related areas of health services, health protection and health improvement.
The report notes that impressive achievements in the biomedical sciences and medical care can obscure the fact that the (...)
The WHO has just published a new edition of its review of the Social determinants of health: the solid facts. Poorer people live shorter lives and are more often ill than the rich. This disparity has drawn attention to the remarkable sensitivity of health to the social