On the 6th May, one day after the World Asthma Day, EFA President Breda Flood and the leadership of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) met with several Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to raise awareness on the growing challenges posed by allergy and asthma and to call for more action through the newly formed European Parliament Interest Group on Allergy and Asthma.
In Europe, 30 million of children and adults under 45 live with asthma while 6 million of them suffer from severe symptoms. The European Parliament Interest Group was launched on the 25th of March under the leadership of Mrs. Sirpa Pietikainen MEP (Finland, European People’s Party) to give a clearer policy response to address allergy and asthma at the EU level.
EFA and EAACI meet with MEPs representing Austria, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Greece and France. As a result of the meetings, the following MEPs are supporting the European Parliament Asthma and Allergy Interest Group:
- Sirpa Pietikäinen (Chair, EPP, Finland)
- Nessa Childers (S&D, Ireland)
- Elisabetta Gardini (EPP, Italy)
- Karin Kadenbach (S&D, Austria)
- Aldo Patriciello (EPP, Italy)
- Anna Záborská (EPP, Slovakia)
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You can register now to attend the next Interest Group meeting that will take place on July 1st, and will focus on the link between allergy, asthma and air pollution to feed into the discussions on the review of the Clean Air Policy Package at the European Parliament. We are calling for more support from the Members of the European Parliament on such an important topic for the health of Europeans.
Asthma and allergy are the most common chronic diseases in children and the leading cause of school absences, emergency visits and hospitalisations in Europe. The total cost of asthma in Europe is 17.7 billion EUR per year, and productivity loss due to patients’ poor control of their asthma is estimated at 9.8 billion EUR per year.
To know more about this initiative, please visit the EP Interest Group on Allergy and Asthma page in our website.