eZine Issue 1/2005

New EFA website and Ezine

Welcome to the first Ezine of the new, re-launched EFA website.

You will have received an email a little while ago introducing the site briefly and, for EFA members, containing your personal login and password. The EFA website will, we hope, be a one-stop-shop of useful and time-saving information as well as a vital tool for keeping informed and sharing your own information and news. The interactive discussion pages contained in the ‘Members Only’ section and accessible to all members of EFA, will be a useful ‘sounding board’ for ideas, as well as a forum for exchanging and sharing best practice, ideas, information and research on asthma, allergy and COPD disease areas as well as other more general environment and air quality issues to which they relate..

Without further ado, we invite you to be amongst the first to surf the website: www.efanet.org

New EFA Board and results of the EFA conference concept survey

This year’s AGM appointed a new EFA Board consisting of: Svein-Erik Myrseth (President), Otto Spranger, Marianella Salapatas, Donna Covey and a new Board member from Astma Fonds, Jos Zoun (Vice President). On behalf of EFA, we would like to welcome and thank Jos for kindly accepting this position. We await the election of the Treasurer and Secretary at the new Board’s first meeting in August 2005. Meanwhile, we would like to extend a very big thank you to Trudy Prins for all her tremendous work on the Board of EFA, Vice President – you will be missed!
To find out more about Board members: http://www.efanet.org/about/governing_body.html

We would also like to thank Bernd Arents for kindly producing a survey for your feedback on the EFA AGM, as summary of which you will be able to consult in the ‘Members only’ section of the website.

New Public Health and Consumer Protection Programme 

The European Commission adopted on 6 April 2005 the proposed new Health and Consumer programme, covering 2007-2013. During the next 18 months, it will go through co-decision procedure. The proposed programme takes a joint approach to Health and Consumer policy, which has thus far been separate programmes and the reason given for this is that both use many similar types of actions to pursue their objectives e.g. information to citizens, consultation of stakeholders etc. Its budget is of EUR 1 203 million, which is a substantial increase from the EUR 312 million accorded to the current Public Health Programme 2003-2008.

The Programme establishes three core joint objectives:
1. Protect citizens from risks and threats which are beyond the control of individuals and that cannot be effectively tackled by individual Member States alone (e.g. health threats, unsafe products, unfair commercial practices).
2. Increase the ability of citizens to take better decisions about their health and consumer interests.
3. Mainstream health and consumer policy objectives across all Community policies in order to put health and consumer issues at the centre of policymaking.

It is hoped that the new programme, should it be adopted as legislation, will lead to greater policy coherence, as well as economies of scale and increased visibility for both health and consumer policy. See: Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and the Council establishing a Programme of Community action in the field of Health and Consumer protection 2007-2013

ECDC Advisory Forum

We are delighted to inform you that EFA’s Anna Doboszyñska from Poland, the Polish Coalition of Allergy, Asthma and COPD Patient Organisations has been nominated by the European Commission to join the Advisory Forum of the new European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm, Sweden. As one of six NGO representatives, Ms Doboszyñska will be joined by one representative designated by each European Member State recognized for his/her scientific competence. EFA has already written a letter of thanks to the European Commission.

See: Decision no 2119/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 September 1998 setting up a network for the epidemiological surveillance and control of communicable diseases in the community http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/1998/l_268/l_26819981003en00010006.pdf

European Council Presidency

1 July 2005 marked the beginning of the UK Presidency of the EU, which will last until the end of December 2005. Though UK PM Tony Blair did not mention health or the environment in his opening speech, we know that the UK hopes to make a ‘substantive and lasting impact’ on two particular health themes: health
inequalities and patient safety. There will be major conferences
during the Presidency on these two themes. See: Official UK Presidency website: http://www.eu2005.gov.uk

European Patient Voice survey

On 28 June 2004, EFA launched the preliminary results of its European Patients Voice survey of 3,562 patients living with allergic rhinitis in 11 European countries. One of the survey’s revelations was the extent to which allergic rhinitis can disrupt people’s activities of daily living. The survey also showed that of those surveyed, half have symptoms at least six months of the year, which adds to the growing evidence of allergic rhinitis as persistent, chronic disease. Learn more about the EFA European Patient Voice survey. EFA members will also be able to access the report of the launch online.

Ratification of FCTC

On 5 June 2005, the European Union completed its ratification of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first ever international treaty on health. It commits countries world-wide to act to reduce the toll of death and disease caused by smoking. The ratification clears the way for the EU to lead preparations for the Conference of Parties due to start as early as February 2006. See: European Commission - Press and Communication Directorate General's midday briefing http://europa.eu.int/rapid/showInformation.do?pageName=middayExpress&guiLanguage=en

A Health and Consumer Intergroup for the European Parliament

The Health and Consumer Intergroup of the European Parliament was successfully launched this month with a meeting on the proposed Health and Consumer Programme. Topics for discussion in the coming months include FP7, mental health, demographic change, obesity and the health of young people. The Health and Consumer Intergroup aims to provide a forum where MEPs will have the opportunity to regularly meet with consumer and public health experts from across the EU. Further information: http://intergroup.epha.org/

Conference on children´s environment and health

The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), EEN Member, is organizing an international conference called “The right start in life for children and young people in Europe” (http://children.epha.org/) on the 9-10 November. The first day will be dedicated to plenary sessions, and the second day (10th November) open for workshops. EEN will coordinate one of the workshops on “Children’s environment and health”, which will focus on young people’s view and recommendations concerning chemicals. We will keep you informed.

Would you like to be a representative for Patients for Patient Safety?

Patients for Patient Safety, one of the six action areas of the World Alliance for Patient Safety launched by WHO last year, will be seeking Consumer Partners to work with them promoting patient safety issues worldwide.  From August we will be calling for applications from patients, patient representatives or consumers who want to work with others to act as champions in their region, advocating for patients to be more involved in patient safety issues.  This will involve attending a Formational Workshop in November this year.  If you might be interested in becoming a Champion and attending the Workshop in London, more information will be available in August.  In the meantime if you want to express an early interest, please contact Rachel Heath, WHO Patients for Patient Safety Support Officer on safety@patientsorganizations.org. Source: IAPO News

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