The European Council

During the Polish Presidency expert conference on “The prevention and control of asthma and allergies in children from the point of view of public health – an urgent need to close the gap”, EPHA called for multi-sectoral prevention of Chronic Respiratory Diseases. During the conference EPHA Policy Officer for Health Inequalities and Policy Coherence, Dorota Sienkiewicz, spoke on the topic of "Allergy and asthma – an important public health problem: respiratory NCD (...)

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 (...)

In December 2010, the European Council adopted a Council Declaration closing the European Year 2010 on combating poverty and social exclusion in the European Union. EPHA called for health inequalities to be taken into account. EPHA regrets that the public health dimension of the declaration is very weak. During the year the European Public Health Alliance, together with other civil society organisations allied in 2010 NGO Coalition, was advocating for greater attention and strong political (...)

*Updated June 2010* On 17 June, the European Council adopted "Europe 2020." The Council Conclusions outline EU headline targets. The Commission released the EU 2020 Strategy in early March. The Strategy was then discussed by EU leaders at the Spring Summit. In this article you can find the targets of the strategy and the conclusions from the Summit. *Updated June 2010* On 17 June, the European Council adopted the "Europe 2020" strategy In its conclusions, the European Council (...)

On 19 November the 27 Heads of States and Governments named Herman Van Rompuy as the first President of the European Council. Catherine Ashton will be the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union. The Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force on 1st December 2009, created both positions. The president of the European Council has a two-and-a-half year mandate renewable once. He is meant to provide sustained leadership for the work of the European Council, the institution (...)

From the 1st July to the end of the year, Sweden is holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. EPHA has put together an online guide on the Swedish Presidency covering its policy priorities, an outlook on EPHA actions, a calendar of events and a directory of key contacts. The presentation of the Swedish Health Attaché at the meeting on 15 July has also been uploaded. The many tasks the future Swedish EU Presidency faces are reflected in its slogan for its six months at (...)