Last year has been crucial for EFA as we implemented the essential changes that we planned in 2022 to transform the European patient community advocacy for allergy, atopic eczema, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
In 2023, we restructured our work more holistically and rolled out the very first EFA Programmes, covering 2023-2025. The programmes are designed to support EFA's community advocacy and communications, alongside its annual projects focused on shared strategic goals. This reflects our mission to advocate for change that benefits patient with allergies and airways diseases in Europe. The new programmatic effort also serves to connect better with the membership and to embrace our wider community, through Community (revised workstream), Prevent (ongoing), Care (ongoing) and Climate Change (new workstream).
I am proud to witness the excitement of EFA members’ community to this new programmatic era, that we re-imagined together, and the commitment of our sustainable corporate funding partners to support the new EFA patients’ agenda with longer term outcomes. Warm thanks to EFA members, and to the EFA Board and staff, who made this possible in 2023, and increased with new talent to enable our patients’ community to be stronger at European level.
On Community, the Board was thrilled to continue with our sustained support to the young and consolidated patient advocates, through skill transferring and EUPATI fellowship sponsorships. We also reinforced the collective voice of the European Lung Health Group (ELHG), defining its first-ever joint campaign, #KeepBreathing, addressed to improve EU lung health policies. We also joined the World Health Organisation Civil Society Commission (CSC), where we will bring the European level allergy and respiratory disease needs earlier to the international agenda in the years to come.
On Prevent, we stood still calling for a tobacco-free generation, bringing our community calls for stringent EU tobacco, smoking and advertising policies, despite the proposals for updated legislation cumulated another year of delay. On food allergy, we strengthened our contribution to the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Committees, informing four crucial standard-setting procedures and actively reminding them in the Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL).
On Care, we continued bringing the allergy, atopic eczema, asthma, and COPD unmet medical needs with advocacy towards the European Commission and through our participation in nine disease specific requests from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Importantly, we harvested the first call for chronic respiratory disease in the EU Health Programme and submitted a project proposal in partnership with the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and European Lung Foundation (ELF). Importantly, we launched the first-ever asthma patient-led international resource, AboutAsthma.org, outlining the latest scientific guidelines to educate about asthma management and prevention, which will be translated into several European languages in 2024. We kicked-off a crucial desk review and community workshops to Raise the Bar for COPD Care.
On Climate Change, EFA’s brand-new programme looking at environmental exposures harming allergy and respiratory health, we joined the WHO Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH). We also solidly brought our patient perspective to every step of the legislative process on the EU Air Quality Directives, and we invested in multiplying our influence by working with an environmental health coalition.
Thanks deeply to EFA members Community and the wider supporters of our daily cause and long term EFA patients’ agenda. Warm thanks to our sustainable corporate partners and to the European Commission for their long-lasting trust and resources to make our work possible. We look forward to building a healthier and better future for health.