Health
In health policy, Belgium will pursue the objectives set by the Trio Presidency Programme in line with the EU Health Strategy for 2008-2013. The main priorities the Spanish, Belgian and Hungarian presidencies agreed on were the social determinants of health and the reduction of inequalities, the promotion of healthy lifestyle (including healthy nutritional habits), the pandemic preparedness and response, the health impact of climate change, innovation in healthcare, the legislation on organs donation and transplantation, the EU health workforce, the cross-border healthcare and the “Pharmaceutical Package”.
The Spanish presidency made considerable progress on several of these common priorities. It proposed a new compromise on the cross-border healthcare, as well as for the pharmacovigilance part of the ‘Pharma Package’. It organised various events on eHealth, and the directive on organs donation and transplantation was voted in the Parliament after the Spanish Presidency secured an agreement among Member States.
The Belgian presidency will now lead the discussions in Council on information to patients, pharmacovigilance and counterfeiting. These dossiers will simultaneously progress in the European Parliament.
Following the Spanish proposal in June, it is expected that negotiations on the Cross-border Directive will begin under the Belgian Presidency. Depending on how the discussions evolve in the European Parliament, Belgium will hopefully reach a final agreement under its presidency.
Besides this common agenda, Belgium will push its own health priorities focused on the prevention and treatment of cancer and other chronic diseases (focusing on respiratory and bones diseases), health security, and the need for developing action strategies at the European level. As a result, the Belgian presidency will organise a series of conference on innovation and access to orphan drugs, on mental diseases (one conference will be held on the evaluation of the Helsinki Charter, and another on the relation between poverty and mental health), on the prescription of antibiotics, and on the health workforce.
Belgium will also organise a conference on air quality to prepare the upcoming proposition of the European Commission on an Action Plan on Environmental Health in 2011.
The Belgian presidency will also work to reach a common European position to present during the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which will take place in November in Uruguay.
Key Belgian Priorities
- Stress the added value of the EU in the areas of health and ageing (including the issue of pensions).
Key events/dates
- 02 July: Rethinking healthcare in ageing societies: taking prevention and care out of hospitals?, Brussels
- 5-6 July: Informal Council on Health
- 8-9 July: Informal Council EPSCO
- 13-14 September: Pediatric Pharmacology Europe, Brussels
- 21-24 September: International Symposium on Drug Analysis, Antwerp
- 22-23 October: Challenging Poverty Creating Hope. Breaking the Cycle of Poverty and Mental Health Problems, Brussels (link)10-13 November: 3rd joint European Public Health Conference, Amsterdam
- 15-20 November 2010: Fourth session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, in Uruguay. (link)
- November 2010: conference on "Changing Work and Mental Health".
- On 2-3 December 2010: European Conference on Nutrition Plans.
- 6-7 December: EPSCO