EFA National Alignment Meetings
In 2011 EFA established a goal to specifically expand its membership to Spain after a prolonged absence of Spanish patient associations in the organisation. As a result, since 2012 EFA has already hosted four Patient Associations Alignment Meetings, which were arranged to provide an opportunity for EFA to learn about the prospects for future coordination between patients’ associations in Spain, Portugal, Malta, and the Baltic States at a national level, while identifying areas for aligning common goals and objectives between EFA and national patients’ associations at the European level. At these meetings, different patients’ associations, representing allergy and respiratory disease, shared their experiences in with other national associations, while EFA was able to identify potential areas for collaboration with those patients’ associations most interested in joining EFA.
In the future EFA aims to continue its expansion of membership across Europe and considers national alignment meetings as a potential tool for garnering interest among patients’ associations in a national context and promoting increased coordination between them. In addition, they present unique educational opportunities for EFA to learn about the national context and specific areas which could be improved upon with effective advocacy at the European level.