05 December 2007
News from EFN
First Agora Forum meeting
The EFN participated in the first Agora meeting on “The Future of Europe” that took place on 8-9 November 2007, in the European Parliament, in Brussels. Set up by the European Parliament in 2006 the Agora Forum is aiming to get people directly involved in discussions over the future direction of Europe now that a Reform Treaty has been signed. The meeting brought together 400 representatives of European Civil Society organisations from across Europe to discuss the opportunities and challenges of the new Reform Treaty.
Meeting of the EU Chief Nursing Officers
The EFN president participated as observer in the meeting of the EU Chief Nursing Officers held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 15-16 November 2007. The ‘Ordem dos Enfermeiros’, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, worked hard in planning the meeting and several presentations from Portuguese managers gave a good background for discussions on quality in health care and patient safety. Furthermore, national reports were used to present a useful overview of the situation in Europe. A working group with representatives from Belgium, Slovenia, Sweden, Scotland and Portugal was set down to analyse the current situation and how the follow up has been on the Munich declaration on Family health nurses in each European country. The EFN promised to support the working group if needed. The EFN expressed the wishes of good cooperation with the chief nursing officers in the future.
8th Conference of European Health Ministers of the Council of Europe
The EFN General Secretary participated in the 8th Conference of European Health Ministers of the Council of Europe “People on the Move: Human Rights and Challenges for Health Care Systems”, held on 22-23 November 2007, in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, where he was invited to make a presentation. A Ministerial Declaration on Migration, Health and Human Rights was signed by the 47 Health Ministers of the Council of Europe setting out their agreement on a number of important proposals aiming to address the challenges posed by migration to health care services and human rights in Europe.
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EU Health Policy Forum
The EFN General Secretary participated in the EU Health Policy Forum that took place in Brussels, on 28 November 2007, in order to discuss on the future work of the EU Health Policy Forum, DG Sanco consultation on the Future Challenges’ paper 2009-2014, the New EU Health Strategy, the Health Services initiative, and about Patient safety. Robert Madelin, DG Sanco Director General, chaired the afternoon section on the health strategy and on the future of the Health Policy Forum. This successful debate will facilitate EFN to look at the implementation of the Health Strategy and developing stronger partnerships with DG Sanco on Stakeholder Approach.
The European Commission DG SANCO launched a new tool intending to help to produce a Health Systems Impact Assessment (HSIA) for new EU Proposals and to provide the EU stakeholders with information about the objectives and health system functions that each proposal may impact on.