Issue 60, 9 December 2010

In this edition Welcome News from the EU Reporting from across Europe EU Press Releases Forthcoming Events New Publications Focus
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Welcome

A Strategy on Nutrition - looking back and preparing for the way forward

By Despina Spanou, Principal Adviser, Directorate General for Health and Consumers, European Commission

This month marks an important point in the European Commission's nutrition policy as we are arriving half-way in the timeline of the Strategy for Europe on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity-related health issues adopted in 2007 for 6 years to reach specific objectives including better informed consumers, increased physical activity, and availability of healthy options for the citizens.

To achieve the objectives of this Strategy, the European Commission has had assistance of all interested stakeholders through the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health and of all 27 Member States through the High Level Group on Nutrition and Physical activity. These fora have set a real example of voluntary cooperation bearing fruit on challenging health issues. Commitments in the area of marketing and advertising to children and in reformulating products have contributed significantly in improving the landscape on nutrition. The increase of national nutrition strategies is another important achievement. A major breakthrough has also been the agreement on a common target to reduce salt endorsed last June by all 27 EU Health Ministers in formal Council Conclusions.

Nutrition and the fight against obesity have been recently given a new impetus worldwide as also evident from the work in international institutions such as the WHO and the OECD. The commitment of US First Lady Michelle Obama on actions to reduce obesity and increase physical activity is another example of the renewed interest for action.

On 8 and 9 December, the European Commission will host together with the Belgian Presidency a conference on nutrition at which we will present the mid-term implementation report of the Strategy outlining the main actions taken to this date. On the same occasion, Commissioner John Dalli will present his vision on the Strategy for the coming years.

Member States and stakeholders will participate actively as it will be an opportunity to look back on the achievements of the Strategy so far and for preparing our objectives and target actions for the future. Our ambition is to continue with the same level of commitment that everyone involved has demonstrated to achieve even greater results for the benefit of our citizens' welfare.

News from the EU

European Food Safety Agency launches new RSS feeds

Feeds on the EFSA website will provide the latest headlines, summaries and links to complete articles as they are published.

European Food Safety Agency launches new RSS feeds

Feeds on the EFSA website will provide the latest headlines, summaries and links to complete articles as they are published.

Public consultation on European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing

The Commission is seeking the views of public and private organisations, companies and citizens on the Active and Healthy Ageing pilot project and on how Europe could scale up innovation to meet the challenges of its ageing population.

Public consultation on European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing

Reporting from across Europe

Poland

Poland introduces smoking ban

Poland joins long list of countries in which smoking is banned in all public places. Restaurants, pubs, clubs, schools, playgrounds and more have become smoke-free zones.

Lithuania

Nutrition recommendations

The Health Ministry's Health Education and Disease Prevention Centre is issuing healthy eating recommendations.

Netherlands

Dutch Health Care Performance Report 2010

The Dutch Ministry of Health has commissioned a Report on Health Care Performance to monitor trends in the quality, accessibility and cost of health care.

EU Press Releases

European Commission urges more prevention and testing

To commemorate World AIDS Day, EU Commissioner for Health John Dalli gave a keynote speech at a seminar on HIV testing in the European Parliament. Early detection is vital for successful treatment and increasing life expectancy, as estimates show that about one third of people infected with HIV in Europe are unaware they have it.

EU Health Prize for Journalists 2010 – Winners announced!

On 30 November, Gianluca Ferraris and Ilaria Molinari received the 2nd EU Health Prize for Journalists in the presence of finalists from 27 countries, editors, national and EU jury members and high representatives of the Commission.

EU Health Prize for Journalists 2010 – Winners announced!

Forthcoming Events

2nd international conference on risk assessment (Brussels, 26 - 28 January 2011)

The "Global Risk Assessment Dialogue" is an international forum on risk assessment principles, methods, and criteria. It follows on a similar dialogue between the European Commission, US and Canada.

International conference on health informatics (Rome, 26 – 29 January 2011)

The purpose of the conference is to bring together researchers and practitioners interested in the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) to healthcare and medicine and to support for persons with special needs.

New Publications

Global recommendations on physical activity for health

The recommendation focuses on prevention of non-communicable diseases through physical activity.

Evaluation of European platform for action on diet, physical activity and health

This evaluation report includes 2 case studies on Platform members’ commitments as regards the key areas of advertising and marketing to children, as well as food/drink reformulation.

Focus