30 June 2009
News from the EU
EU Elections
Held in the 27 EU Member States between 4 and 7 June 2009, the 7th European elections are now behind us. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history, also marked by a new record of abstention rate (56.45%). According to the results published by the European Parliament, the European People's Party (EPP) has 264 seats out of a total of the 736, far ahead of the socialists that have won 161 seats. The liberals are due to have 80 seats, the Greens 53, the far left 32, and the sovereignists 35 and 18 seats. 93 seats have not yet been distributed. The first act of the newly elected European Parliament (2009-2014) meeting in Strasbourg on 14-16 July 2009 will be to elect its President.
Patient Safety & Healthcare Associated Infections
The Council Recommendation on Patient Safety, including the Prevention and Control of Healthcare Associated Infections, to which the EFN and its members provided input, was adopted by the EU Health Ministers on 9 June 2009. In agreement with EFN Policy and Position Statements on this issue, the Council recommends the EU Member States to: Support the establishment and development of national policies and programmes on patient safety; Empower and inform citizens and patients; Support the establishment or strengthen blame-free reporting and learning systems on adverse events; Promote education and training of healthcare workers on patient safety; Classify and measure patient safety at Community level; Share knowledge, experience and best practice; and Develop and promote research on patient safety. This is a big step forward for patient safety in Europe.
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EU strategy for employment
The European Commission launched a new strategy entitled: “Shared Commitment for Employment” aiming to reduce the effects of the crisis on employment. The EU will make available 19 billion Euros from the European Social Fund (ESF) to help citizens to keep their job or to find another one, thanks to the development of competence and enterprising spirit and the enhancement of public employment services. Together with the European Investment Bank Group and other partners, a new European loans facility will be set up to provide micro-credits for those who would usually have difficulty accessing the necessary funds to set up a business or micro-enterprise.
FREE online resource for Nurses and Healthcare Practitioners
A new free online source of information has been launched, providing Nurses and Healthcare Practitioners actively involved in wound-dressing changes with the latest research, therapies, protocols and best practices. The goal of the initiative is to aid professionals in improving the quality of life for their patients by raising the awareness of dressing-related pain and presenting tools to achieve changes in practice, and to give students’ worldwide insight into best practices and knowledge directly from the world’s leading experts.
Equity Channel
A new website (www.equitychannel.net), bringing together people and groups who are interested in improving health equity and facilitating the work of an international collaboration on the social determinants of health, has been recently launched by EuroHealthNet. The objective of this initiative (running until December 2011) is to help EU policy-makers to improve society’s health equity by stimulating and supporting changes in policies at international, national and local levels, through the involvement of people and groups from all backgrounds and communities.
Publications
Economic impacts of post-enlargement labour mobility within the EU
The European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities published the results of a study entitled “Labour mobility in the EU in the context of enlargement and the functioning of the transitional arrangements” that confirms the positive effects of the transfer of labour towards the EU from Member States in Central and Eastern Europe, notably with regard to economic growth in the EU as a whole. The study looks into the volume and structure of labour mobility east-west since 2004 and 2007 enlargements, both at national and regional levels, and the impact this has had on employment markets, macro-economic data and public finance. It also looks into human capital related issues such as the brain-drain and the decline in competence of mobile workers.