workforce

Increasing capacities to deliver effective public health: WHO consults

The World Health Organisation Europe Region consults and draws the European Public Health Action Plan for strengthening public health capacities and services. The deadline to comment is the 6 April 2012. Public health experts have reached a common understanding that there is a need across the region to strengthen public health and capacities to deliver ’public health’. In order to improve the situation, the WHO Europe Region has drafted an European Public Health Action Plan (...)

Mental Health Europe announces 2012 Annual conference on Social Determinants of Mental Health

Mental Health Europe, EPHA member working on Mental Health issues in Brussels has announced the details of its 2012 conference to be held on 14 - 16 June in Split, Croatia. Deadline to submit abstract: 15 March 2012 Abstracts are now being invited for contributions to the Mental Health Europe Annual conference, which this year will focus on the Social Determinants of Mental Health. The conference will feature speakers from the World Health Organisation (WHO), European Commission and the (...)

Access denied: Irregular migrants excluded from basic rights and services in Europe

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) publishes a new report showing the challenges faced by undocumented migrants in Europe. The lack of access to healthcare is one of the main barriers that is highlighted by the European Agency. Among the recommendations, free healthcare is pointed out as necessary, especially for children and pregnant women. Main findings Entitled ’Fundamental rights of migrants in an irregular situation in the European Union’, the report (...)

"Keeping the Health Workforce debate high on the EU agenda is essential" argues EPHA in the European Parliament

On 31 May 2011, EPHA took part in a half-day seminar entitled ’’Developing a Community approach to addressing health workforce and professional mobility challenges’’ in the European Parliament. The event served as a multistakeholder discussion forum for highlighting the main health workforce challenges and for bringing requests to the European Parliament for future action. Organised by Dr. Antonyia Parvanova MEP (Bulgaria, ALDE) with the cooperation and support of (...)

Public consultation: Green Paper on Modernising the Professional Qualifications Directive

The European Commission released a Green Paper (consultation) on Modernising the Professional Qualifications Directive (Directive 36) on 22 June, and a public consultation has been launched by DG MARKT to collect stakeholders’ views on its rejuvenation. The deadline for responses in 20 September 2011. The reform of the system of recognition of professional qualifications as a means to facilitate mobility is one of the priority actions proposed by the Commission in the Single Market (...)

Highlights from the 2011 World Health Assembly

The 64th World Health Assembly took place in Geneva from the 16th to the 24th of May. A total number of 28 resolutions and three decisions were adopted, among which some were characterized as ‘historical’. Introduction The Conference lasted for 8 days, and was introduced by the opening speeches from Dr Margaret Chan Director-General of the WHO (speech), Sheikh Hasina Prime Minister of Bangladesh (speech), and Bill Gates co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (...)

Training on tobacco taxation for the public health community - TobTaxy project

The EU-funded TobTaxY (making Tobacco Tax TrendY) project - of which EPHA is a partner - aims to train the public health and tobacco control community on tobacco taxation and smuggling issue. Application and registration for the second workshop in Romania (covering Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Malta and Cyprus) are now opened. The Capacity Building workshops will take place in 5 strategically selected countries across the European Union, with representatives from the 26 other (...)

EPHA Report on ‘Left Behind – The impact of economic migration on children left behind and their families’

A conference jointly organized by L’Albero Della Vita, Fondazione Patrizio Paoletti and Eurochild, took place in Brussels on the 2nd of March 2011. The conference addressed the issue of children left behind in the country of origin when parents migrate to another European country in search of employment. This phenomenon is still underestimated and unknown while it concerns approximately half a million children in the European Union. The event gathered experts from all over Europe to (...)

EPHA position on the revision of the Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive

Please find below EPHA’s response, as well as other information pertaining to the European Commission consultation on the revision of the Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive (Directive 2005/36/EC). The public consultation included three main themes: A call for simplification; Integrating professionals into the Single Market; and Injecting more confidence into the system A public hearing was also organised on 21 February with speakers from the European (...)

Council Conclusions on investing in Europe’s health workforce of tomorrow: Scope for innovation and collaboration

At its 3053rd Employment, Social Policy Health and Consumer Affairs Council meeting on 7 December 2010, the Council of the European Union debated and adopted a number of conclusions related to the European health workforce. The recommendations brought forward are presented in this article. The Council adopted the following conclusions: "The Council of the European Union: 1. RECALLS that under Article 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Union action is to (...)