Tackling socio-economic inequalities in smoking
On the 8th of December, the SILNE project’s results were presented at the European Parliament. This three-year Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) project accounts for “Tackling socio-economic inequalities in smoking: learning from natural experiments by time trend analyses and cross-national comparisons” and aimed to generate new empirical evidence on the effectiveness of strategies to reduce socio-economic inequalities in smoking. EFA has been involved throughout the project as part of the Advisory Board and was represented in the event by Senior EU Policy Advisor Roberta Savli. Top researchers from different disciplines and different European regions worked together and linked up with European research networks concerned with tobacco control or health inequalities to inform policies to reduce socio-economic inequalities in smoking. 
The results showed that some tobacco control policies proved to be effective in reducing relative inequalities, while others, although they reduced smoking rates, were not able to decrease inequalities. The message presented by almost all speakers and participants is that tobacco control policies should be targeted to the reduction of health inequalities and this would feed into the EU strategy aimed at reducing inequalities in health. All presentations are available here.
Air Quality and Climate Change event
On the 2nd of December, Junior EU Policy Officer Jelena Malinina participated in a stakeholders dialogue on Air Quality and Climate Change. During the first part of the event, researchers presented policy-related finding of 7 EU projects dealing with environmental aspects including climate change, air pollution and societal impacts: (1) PEGASOS Project exploring chemistry-climate interactions, presentation (2) ACCENT Plus Project dealing with aerosols, presentation ACCENT Plus Project dealing with ozone and air pollution, presentation (3) ECLIPSE Project on climate impacts of short-lived climate forcers, presentation (4) ECLAIRE Project dealing with air-ecosystem interactions and ammonia, presentation (5) ACCESS Project on arctic pollution and climate/air quality impacts, presentation (6) ATOPICA Project on pollen (7) MACC-III Project dealing with added-value products for policy use, presentation During the second part of the event, the representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Meteorological Organisations, the European Commission and key research centers shared their views on the climate change policies and highlighted that Europe needs common well-coordinated policies tackling both climate change and air pollution, as those two phenomena are closely interlinked.
Mitigating Risks in the Lifecycle of Medical Devices: Options and Challenges in Building Clinical Evidence
On the 4th December 2014, EFA Junior EU Policy Officer Jelena Malinina took part in a multi-stakeholder workshop of the joint EFGCP-MedTech Europe Medical Technology Working Group Party on mitigating risks in the lifecycle of medical devices. The upcoming European Regulation on Medical Devices is expected to change the landscape for the development of medical devices in Europe, however, in the current legislative framework there is room for improvement. Setting effective ethical and quality clinical standards for medical technology studies is critical to ensure that patients have access to safe and effective treatment. Therefore, the workshop gathered together patient representatives, healthcare providers, ethicists, competent authorities, industry and policymakers to present and discuss their needs, opportunities for mitigating risks in the development and full life cycle of medical devices and the best ways of building clinical evidence. Consequently, the goal of the workshop was to:
- understand the differences between clinical trials with medicines and medical devices;
- identify suitability of concepts and lessons learned in medicines development for clinical development of medical devices;
- discuss how best to ensure the required ethnical and quality standards in medical device trial.
The workshop concluded highlighting that it is crucial to ensure patients’ participation at all stages of medical devices development, as well as to get their feedback on the use of medical devices, in particular if any problems occurs. All participants expressed their considerations regarding increasing use of mobile health applications, and highlighted the need to define whether mobile health applications should be considered as medical devices and how to regulate them in that case.
Rethinking Urban Mobility
On the 10th December, Brussels-based think-tank Friends of Europe organised a conference on “Rethinking Urban Mobility” with the aim to discuss the crucial opportunities and challenges related to the use of traffic in the European cities. Rapid expansion of the European cities leads to the increased congestion, air pollution and traffic accidents. Many current car-based urban systems are close to a breakdown, thus being able to circulate quickly, safely and with little environmental impact become a critical priority for the cities tomorrow. During the first session of the event, the key policy makers and industry representatives underlined the following ways to put upcoming urban mobility trends on a sustainable path:
- Make cars cleaner: encouraging transfer to Euro 6 vehicles;
- Make sustainable transport modes (walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing) a more attractive alternative to private cars;
- Prioritise investment to improve public transport services and networks;
- Encourage greater collaboration between local authorities, innovative business leaders and citizens to create a collective next-generation transit systems;
During the second session of the event, a potential of greener transport solutions in cutting carbon emissions and improving air quality was discussed. Despite the technological progress and political efforts, the transport sector is still responsible for a quarter of Europe’s CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, and its share is growing. More than 95% of vehicles depend on oil, representing 60% of oil consumption. Alternative electric, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles are still not cost-competitive and account for only 1% of total car sales in Europe, and the necessary accompanying infrastructure is extremely insufficient. All panel discussion participants agreed that use of alternative fuels in Europe should be supported by the relevant legislative framework, investment and research on the best transport modes.