June 2010 Issue

Greetings from EFA Annual General Meeting and 14th Conference

Vilnius in Lithuania was the city that hosted the 14th EFA Conference. The first day was dedicated to the AGM and the second day was a half a day conference. During the AGM many important issues were discussed. The AGM decided on a new powerful vision, mission and objectives that will be published shortly. At the end of the AGM the members through a networking process shared best practices of their own member associations.

During this year’s elections the vice president and one board member were elected. EFA welcomes its new Vice President Christine Rolland from French association “Association Asthme et Allergies” and welcomes back Lina Buzermaniene from Lithuanian Council of Asthma Clubs. Also EFA would like to thank Ondrej Rybnicek from Czech Initiative for Asthma, ex Vice President for his dedication and work in the EFA board .

This year’s conference dealt with issues on reimbursement and health technology assessment (HTA). We had the opportunity to hear about reimbursement policies in different European countries as well as what HTA is and how patient organizations can contribute. The presentations are available at EFA website.
I would like to thank all speakers for sharing their knowledge with us and enlightening us with important information. I would also like to thank on behalf of EFA Lina Buzermaniene and the Lithuanian council of Asthma Clubs and Egle Kvederaite from the Association of Asthma Patient Clubs for a superb organization of the 14th EFA Conference.

Marianella Salapatas, EFA President

EFA Event: Launch of the Call to Action on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease- 30 June European Parliament

Will Europe Suffocate or Breathe? On the 30th of June, EFA held a successful event hosted by MEP Catherine Stihler, at the European Parliament in Brussels, to mark the launch of a first European Call to Action on COPD and to present EFA Book on COPD in Europe: Sharing and Caring. COPD affects approximately 44 million in Europe, and is the fourth leading cause of mortality. Because of the loss of working days, hospitalization and treatment, the impact of the disease on society is significant. COPD is a preventable and treatable disease yet awareness, prevention, diagnosis and access to treatment are far from optimal. EFA aims united medical, political and patient communities to call for a coordinated and comprehensive EU-wide strategy on COPD. We will feature the results of this event in our next ezine.
Press releases and presentations.
See the latest issue of Parliament magazine for articles on COPD by MEP Catherine Stihler, and EFA President Marianella Salapatas.

EFA Event: European Commission Open Health Forum workshop on health and environment

A day before our event on COPD, EFA and Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) coordinated a workshop on “Integrating environment and health policy towards better health”. The event was co-chaired by Marie-Christine De Wolf, President of HEAL and by Marianella Salapatas, EFA President.

In the first part of the workshop, integration of environment and health in EU policy was discussed; both from the European Commission Directorate General Health perspective and from the NGO perspective (HEAL).

The second part of the workshop gave concrete policy examples from various angles: The French national environment and health action plan was presented. For the patient perspective, Breda Flood from the Asthma Society of Ireland took the example of policies affecting outdoor and indoor quality, and climate change was discussed from a doctor’s perspective.

The speakers, panel and the participants debated on recommendations to be presented to the Plenary, and they showed wide support for a Second EU Environment and Health Action Plan which would be an overarching framework for integration of environment and health policy at every level, EU, Member States and local. More on the results of this workshop to come in our July eZine.
Open Health Forum website.
DG Health video on health in all policies featuring EFA and HEAL project www.knowyourairforhealth.eu: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/dalli/multimedia/videos/index_en.htm

Members News: World Asthma Day in Bulgaria orgamised by Association of Bulgarians with Bronchial Asthma (ABBA)

On World Asthma Day in May the Association organised in 7 cities (Sofia, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Varna, Pleven, Berkoziva) in Bulgaria 2000 spirometry tests, as well as games, with the support of Confederation Health Protection, Bulgarian Society for Pulmonary Diseases, Bulgarian Society of Allergology and Association of Medical Students.
Presentation with pictures of these events.
www.asthma-bg.com

EU Food Allergen Labelling: European Parliament held historical vote on the 16th of June

The European Parliament (EP) debated on the proposal for a regulation on food information to consumers on the 15th of June, and adopted amendments on the 16th of June. The text adopted is available at the Parliament website .

EFA, with the support of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) highlighted that this vote was a major opportunity to improve daily life of people with food allergy in a press release.The Green political group proposed an amendment in order to ask for European guidelines on allergen management, to regulate precautionary labelling, the so-called “may contain” labelling. Unfortunately it wasn’t adopted. However the adopted text states that common rules should be drawn up for the purpose of indicating traces of allergenic substances, so that people with food allergy can make safer choice (amendment 18). This leaves the door open for regulation of precautionary labelling of allergens, which are currently misleading and undefined.

The EP adopted an amendment to ask for definition of a binding clear legibility concept for information on the labels after a consultation of stakeholders, instead of the mandatory 3mm font size proposed by the Commission. For non pre-packed food, information will have to be available on demand. There will also be a statement “cross-contamination cannot be avoided” on sign or menus. EFA is strongly opposed to these signs on the ground that it doesn’t encourage business operators to put in place good practice of allergen management, and misleads people with food allergy at the same level that precautionary labelling, since this sign concerns potentially all non pre-packed food served in the premise.

There will be new opportunities for EFA and its members to raise awareness about the needs of people with food allergy regarding food information, as the European Council will take position in a few months, and it is likely there will be a second reading at the European Parliament.
EFA Position Paper.

EU news: World No Tobacco Day: News survey that 75% of European citizens support stronger tobacco control measures

Ahead of World no Tobacco Day 31st of May, a new Eurobarometer survey on tobacco was released. The survey shows that 3 on 4 European citizens support pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs and smoking bans for restaurants. However, the survey reminds us that one third of European population still smoke, while tobacco kills one user on two. In his speech Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli reacted to these results by declaring his determination “to do everything in my power to reduce tobacco consumption across Europe”. He announced the upcoming revision of existing legislation on tobacco products, notably the Directive on manufacture, presentation and sales of tobacco from 2001
Source: Europa Press Release: World no Tobacco Day: the Commission reaffirms its commitment to fight against smoking

The United Nations adopt a Resolution on non-communicable disease

Non-communicable diseases, including chronic respiratory diseases, kill nearly 35 million people each year, including 9 million before the age of 60. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a Resolution on the prevention and control of non communicable diseases on 13th of May.

The General Assembly resolved to convene a high level meeting on this topic in September 2011. Before that in September 2010, the socioeconomic impact of these diseases in developing countries will be discussed. The UN Secretary General was also asked to prepare a global status report on non communicable diseases. The World Health Organisation, which has put in place an action plan from 2008 to 2013 on non communicable disease,welcomed this resolution as tackling these diseases is considered to be a major challenge for this century, according to WHO Assistant General Director. This is a major success for the WHO Global Alliance Against Respiratory Diseases (GARD), where EFA is representing patients and which is spearheaded by Prof. Jean Bousquet.
Source: WHO Media centre: The UN tackles non communicable diseases

European Patient's Right Day: Ask your Members of the European Parliament to sign the Written Declaration!

As explained in our last issue, the officially recognised European Patient’s Right Day would be a day dedicated to raising the awareness among patients on their rights, and to promote these rights. Several MEPs together tabled a written declaration in order to make it official, but the signatures of half of the MEPs are needed.
The Active Citizenship Network prepared a template letter that citizens and organisations can send to encourage their MEPs to sign before the deadline 17 of September. The European Patients’ Forum supports this action.
Further information and template letter are available at the Active Citizenship website. 

EFA in meetings in May:

EFA participated to the Seminar on Health Technology Assessment organised by the European Patients Forum (EPF) on May 19th. It involved more than 80 patient organisations.  As HTA is becoming a priority at the EU level, patient involvement in the process is increasing, but still in an ad hoc way. The Seminar gave an overview of HTA, of the political challenges behind it and of the growing cooperation in Europe.  Participants discussed in workshops the barriers and opportunities for patients and their associations to be involved in HTA.
Source: EPF Press release: EPF seminar agrees meaningful involvement of patients in HTA processes can make a difference to patient-centred equitable healthcare throughout Europe.
Presentations by speakers at the event are available at EPF website.

Susanna Palkonen, EFA Executive Officer, participated to the Annual General Meeting of the European Patient Forum on May the 20th and was re-elected as Vice-President in EPF Board.

EFA also attended the Smoke Free Partnership event “Setting the EU tobacco control Agenda and celebrating the pledge” on World No Tobacco day 31st of May. Speakers, including Commissioner for Health John Dalli insisted that consumers have the right to be informed on the deadly effect of tobacco on their health. It also focused on marketing to women. This event showed that strong warnings on tobacco product package and standardized packaging is the way forward toward a smoke free Europe.
Source: Smoke Free Partnership Press release: 
Call for mandatory pictorial warnings and standardised packaging of tobacco products in the EU.