As official stakeholders to the World Health Organisation Regional Committee for Europe, EFA contributed to the drafting of the WHO Europe Regional Programme of Work 2020-2025. EFA successfully advocated for the inclusion of measures such as the continuum of care during emergencies, better use of digital tools for self-management, and prevention policies for health and well-being with a special focus on risk factors such as air pollution and tobacco. 

In 2020, EFA continued contributing to the activities of EU4Health CSA (Civil Society Alliance): a campaign that gathers patient groups and public health advocates to ask for more EU action on health. During 2020, despite the burden of the pandemic, the initiative saw its membership increase four-fold, bringing the overall number of participating organisations to 21. EU4Health CSA also met with the new Regional Director of WHO/Europe, Hans Kluge, to discuss cooperation between the WHO/Europe Regional office and civil society at the EU level.

One of EU4Health CSA’s aims was to influence the institutional negotiations around the EU4Health budget 2021-2027. EFA and the EU4Health CSA focused joint efforts on advocating for more EU action on health with resourced initiatives.

Together, we published:

• 7 joint statements, including a call for more EU action on health (May).
• 10 guiding principles for the EU health programme (September).
• A statement in view of the European Parliament Plenary vote (November).

EFA also contributed to drafting amendments to ensure ambitious funding for health policies in the next EU budget.

As Members of the EUnetHTA stakeholder pool, we witnessed the paralysis of the 2018 European Commission proposal for a Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Regulation at the Council of the European Union. Moreover, we experienced difficulties with patient inclusion and representation in the work of EUnetHTA. As a result, we sent a letter requesting the governing bodies adopt a framework for interaction with stakeholders that acknowledged the role of patients, consumers, and healthcare professional organisations. Our efforts underscore the importance and strength of patient organisations in this process; The Regulation will likely be adopted in 2021.