Campaigns

A new "Smoke is Poison" campaign in the UK

Cancer Research UK an EPHA member has launched an advertising campaign, "Smoke is Poison", to warn people about the dangerous chemicals in cigarette smoke.
Cigarette smoke contains 69 cancer-causing chemicals and hundreds of other poisons. Amongst others, arsenic, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide can all be found in cigarette smoke.
According to the UK Public Health Minister, smoking related illnesses cost the health system £1.7 billion each year. Furthermore, 300 people are killed by a (...)

**Updated** EPHA, EEN and EFA call on MEPs to improve air quality legislation

Updated with latest actions in October 2006.
EPHA, EPHA Environment Network, and EFA - the European Federation of Allergies and Airway Diseases Patients’ Associations sent a letter in June 2006 to the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety ahead of the vote on the EU Thematic Strategy on Air Quality and Ambient Air Quality Legislation.
The three organisations called on MEPs to ensure the highest possible level of health protection for EU (...)

Stakeholder consultation on new EU Environment and Health Strategy

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.

Participate in NGO Campaigns on Dangerous Chemicals

The first review in 30 years of EU legislation on chemicals is currently at the stage of public consultation, deadline for comments is 10 July 2003. The proposed legislation is designed to control harmful and toxic chemicals which are used in every day comsumer products and which accumulate in the body.
There are currently over 100 000 chemicals approved for the EU market but there is little or no safety data on long-term exposure to many of these chemicals. This means that European (...)

Controlling Harmful Chemicals

This is first major review of the EU chemicals legislation since 1981 and is a critical opportunity to ensure that the impact of chemicals on human health is properly assessed. There are more than 100 000 chemicals already approved for the European market and an additional 10 000 are added every year. There will be a public consultation on the Commission’s website for 5 weeks in May 2003. This is your opportunity to have your say on chemicals.
DG Environment, Consultation on REACH - New (...)

Campaign for an active role of civil society in the IGC process

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 (...)

August 2003, IGC Preparations and Member State Positions on the Convention

THE IGC
Italian Presidency says "European Constitution, Agreement Not Easy, Not Impossible", 28th July
Presidency website. Finding a compromise solution to allow for the adoption of a future European Constitution "will not be easy but it won’t be impossible either," according to Premier and European Union duty president Silvio Berlusconi.
Italy intends to play a neutral role in the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) which it hopes will complete its work by December 10, he said during a (...)

July 2003, What do Europeans think of the Convention?

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 (...)

July 2003, Convention and Health: No Changes in the latest Draft Text of Part III (Policies)

After all the amendments and oral interventions on public health, article III-174 (ex Article 152) has not been modified by the Presidium.
The new draft of Part III (policies), dated 8th July 2003, does not innovate since the last draft of Part III (policies) dated 27th June.
On Wednesday 9 July, the Plenary will meet from 15:00h onwards in the European Parliament. They will discuss the new draft of Part III (policies) and then the Presidium will decide if meeting again the same evening to (...)

July 2003, Written Amendments for Convention’s Public Debate on Policies

Plenary to Debate Policies
The European Convention will hold two additional plenary sessions on 4 and 9-10 July to discuss Parts III and IV of the draft Constitution, dealing with the EU’s policies, the issue of ratification by Member States and the procedures for the revision of the Constitution.
Some 1.700 amendments were tabled. Proposals concern the division of powers between the Member States and the Union’s institutions and their competences over a complete range of policies, (...)

June 2003, Civil Society Plans Strategy for Thessaloniki

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 (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 12-13 June

On Thursday 12 and Friday 13 of June, the Convention met in Plenary session for the last time before the Thessaloniki Summit.
On Thursday, after a long day of meetings with the component groups of the Convention the Presidium turned up to the plenary session at 19:00, one hour later than expected.
Giscard d’Estaing presented the document with the final amendments to the text, amongst which he mentioned amendments to the Preamble, to the articles on the institutional reform and (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 11 June 2003

The Convention has decided to start its final Plenary session a day earlier, initially scheduled for the Thursday and Friday only.
New Texts
Giscard d’Estaing gathered the ’Conventioneers’ on Wednesday at 15:00h to present them with a few new texts:
Revised text of Part I.
This document includes the text of the Preamble and of Part I of the Treaty establishing the Constitution, together with that of the Protocols on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality (...)

June 2003, Social Platform Organises Large Event on the Convention

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 (...)

June 2003, A Health Perspective on EU Treaty Reform

The health community must seize the opportunity of the treaty reform to put health in its rightful place at the heart of the European Union.
This means ensuring that public health is included as an objective of the EU (new Article 3) and as a shared competence (new Article 12) between the EU and the Member States.
The current legal basis for public health in the EU is the Amsterdam Treaty, signed in 1997. Article 152 states that the EU will ensure a ’high level of health protection in all (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary 30-31 May

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.

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 17-18 March

The European Convention is entering a busy time.
On the 17-18 March the Plenary met to present draft articles 38-40 on the Union Finances and article 31 on the area of Freedom, Security and Justice and to debate the protocols on the principles of subsidiarity and proporcionality (Summary report of the meeting)
The Convention met in an informal plenary session on 26 March 2003 to discuss the tabled amendments to the first 7 draft articles initially presented by the Praesidium in early (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 5 March

In a follow-up to the email briefing on Friday 28 February 2003, please find below some notes from the Convention plenary "informal" session of Wednesday 5th of March 2003: Debate on articles 8-16, presided by Vice-president Mr Giuliano Amato, PES.
In order to structure the debate, the Praesidium suggested that the discussion focus on a set of questions on each article. The written questions on articles 11, 12 and 15 were as follows:
Exclusive competences, article 11
(a) Should the (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 27-28 February

On Thursday 27 and Friday 28 February, the Convention met in Plenary session at the European Parliament in Brussels to debate the first 16 draft articles of the Constitutional Treaty.
The first 16 draft articles were published during the previous Plenary Session of the Convention (6-7 February).
Then the Convention members had until the 17 February to submit their amendments. Due to the large number of amendments (1147 amendments) this deadline became just indicative and more amendments (...)

February 2003, Amendments to first draft Articles 1-16 of the Constitutional Treaty

The deadline was Monday 17 February for Members of the Convention of Europe to submit amendments to the Praesidium’s draft Articles 1-16 of the Constitutional Treaty.
EPHA and many of its members had lobbied for public health to be included in Article 3 : Objectives of the EU and for Public Health to remain a shared competence for Member States and the Union (Article 12).
More than 1000 contributions were made by Convention Members, which are gradually being posted onto the Convention (...)

February 2003, Health stakeholders call for health priority in the EU

The EU Health Policy Forum is a grouping of 45 health stakeholders including NGOs, health professionals, academic researchers, patient groups, hospital managers, trades unions, social insurance partners and industry. The EU Health Policy Forum has agreed this joint statement expressing concern that public health has not been adequately considered and addressed in the Convention thus (...)

Campaign for GMO free zones launched

The Assembly of European Regions (AER) and Friends of the Earth (FoE) launched a joint campaign in Strasbourg on 14 September that aims to protect traditional crops from the consequences of the introduction of new genetic technologies.
The AER and FoE will lobby, among other things, for a European legal framework on the coexistence of traditional and transgenic crops as well as a legal recognition of GMO - free zones in Europe.
The two groups call for several measures to be implemented (...)

Peoples’ food sovereignty statement

A group of organisations that work on food, nutrition, agriculture and trade, has issued a "Peoples’ Food Sovereignty Statement".
This is already signed by a range of organisations (see the list at the end of the attachment).
If your organisations is not on but does want to support this statement please send your organisations signature to Andrianna Natsoulas (the statement can only be signed by organisations, not by individual persons).
They intend to give this text broad coverage in (...)

Chocolate Marketing Campaign to UK School Children

The chocolate manufacturer Cadbury is launching a £9m campaign to encourage children to buy 160m chocolate bars, containing nearly 2m kg of fat, to trade in for "free" sports equipment for their schools. The initiative is supported by the UK government because ’it will help to tackle obesity’.
The Guardian

EU RIP Cigarettes Alliance or the waifer of paper that would save 1000 lives

The RIP campaign at EU level is coordinated by Florence Berteletti-Kemp at the Smoke-Free Partnership. Created in 2006, The EU RIP Alliance is a new independent and flexible partnership open for membership.
Launched at a hearing in the European Parliament in February 2007, the EU RIP Cigarettes Alliance campaigns for safer cigarretes in Europe.
In view of the fact that it is technologically and economically feasible for cigarettes to meet fire-safety standards, the EU RIP Alliance aims to (...)

What role for the EU in the global fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic?

Ahead of the June 2006 review of the United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, health NGOs call the EU to act as a global leader in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
In June 2001, the United Nations held a United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AID where all UN Member States agreed to respond to HIV/AIDS with specific commitments and deadlines in a ’Declaration of Commitment’. Despite the fact that the Declaration is not legally binding, more than (...)

Eurocare’s Response to Consultation on marketing of alcohol

Alcoholic Beverages and the Revision of the Television Without Frontiers Directive

MSF and Oxfam say WTO drugs deal is "flawed"

The WTO agreement of 30 August 2003, which is ostensibly intended to get drugs to the poorest countries, does not provide a workable solution, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Oxfam.
"Today’s deal was designed to offer comfort to the US and the Western pharmaceutical industry," said Ellen ’t Hoen of MSF. "Unfortunately, it offers little comfort for poor patients. Global patent rules will continue to drive up the price of medicines."
The original intention of the talks was (...)

Campaign Against GATS Liberalisation

The EU is requesting 109 developing countries to open their markets for liberalisation in services, many of which are crucial public services such as water, education and healthcare. Although NGO pressure has lead the EU to state that public services in the EU will not be opened to GATS liberalisation, this protection is not being extended to developing countries.
What can you do about it ?
Send a letter to the EU trade ministers;
Send a letter to EU Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy; (...)