March 2012 Issue
EU News: Latest EU health policy developments
The last months of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 have been particularly fruitful in terms of policy developments in EFA’s interest areas both directly and indirectly related to asthma, allergy and COPD. In November, the European Commission proposed the third multiannual programme of EU action in the field of health for the period 2014/2020, the
Health for Growth programme, of which coping with chronic diseases is mentioned as one of the four main objectives. Also released in November was the European Commission’s proposal for
Horizon 2020, a follow-up programme of the
7th framework programme for research and technological developments. Among other things this will focus on alleviating societal challenges, including health, through research funding.
In March this year, two public consultations directly related to EFA’s interest areas were launched. The first is a
consultation on the EU seventh environmental action plan to gather the opinions of stakeholders and the public on environment policy priorities up to 2020. The deadline is June 1st 2012. The second is the European Commission’s
reflection process on chronic diseases, with a deadline for submissions on April 15th. EFA is planning to submit responses to both, and as a result of our projects on allergy and COPD, has a lot to contribute to the reflection process on chronic diseases in particular.