03 April 2004

EPBS to attend European Commission's Open Forum

Martin Nicholson,as President of EPBS, was pleased to accept the kind invitation from the European Commission, Directorate-General Health and Consumer protection to attend the European Commission's "Open Forum" conference for health stakeholders to be held In Brussels on the 17th May 2004.

The object of the forum is to provide a platform for networking and exchange of ideas and views of different stakeholders of the European health community (health professionals' organisations,public health NGO's, patient groups and service providers and funders). In the longer term the Open Forum could be developed into a European Health day, possibly linking it to the WHO's Health Day in April.

The Commission has established the "EU Health Forum" as an information and consultant mechanism to ensure that the aims of the Community's health strategy are made clear to the public and responds to their needs. In addition to bi-annual meetings of a group of invited stakeholders, a key element of the EU Health Forum is the "Open Forum" as an annual conference and exhibition event. This event is now being set up for the first time and aims to attract 300 participants.

The program is to be posted on their web-site:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph_overview/health_forum_en.htm