Year 2014

MHN is grateful to the Civil Society Funds which make it possible to maintain membership in these important organsations. MHN received the reimbursement for membership fees paid for 2014 by the Minister for Social Dialogue, Consumer Affairs and Civil Liberties Hon Helena Dalli during a ceremony held for this purpose together with other representatives of Civil Society. These funds will cover part of the membership fees paid to European Patients Forum (EPF), European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) and Volonteurope. These are essential to keep our communication and receive information on a European Level.

Civil Society Funds 2014 Press release 

The event, entitled ‘Enlargement, Migration and Social Cohesion in the EU’ was be held under the distinguished patronage of H.E. Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta. This year’s Conference looked at the importance of European Civil Society on the 10th anniversary of the biggest recent enlargement of the European Union, as well as the trends, challenges and positive developments associated with mobility and migration in Europe – both intra-EU, as well as from outside of the Union.

The Conference addressed a range of key issues, debated during official events, keynote addresses from practitioners and specialists on enlargement, migration, social cohesion and fundamental rights, as well as four thematic Roundtables giving the participants an opportunity to discuss some of the following topics:

• Fundamental rights of people in enlarged Europe – the complexity of migration issues: safeguarding fundamental rights in Europe
• Impact of migration and enlargement on social cohesion – challenges and stereotypes: public services, health and social care provision and well-being
• Challenges to mobility and migration – how mobility makes Europe work: the role of partnerships to promote tolerance, fight xenophobia and racism
• Impact of enlargement on civil society and volunteering – universal civic service: strengthening civil society and ensuring equality in enlarged Europe

The event, brought together 140 participants from across Europe, which included keynote addresses from H.E. President of Malta, European Commission officials, Maltese politicians engaged in enlargement and migration processes, leading Maltese human rights lawyers and activists, as well as Presidents of leading European civil society networks. Roundtables were led by consortia made up of NGOs, inter-governmental organisations and institutions from across Europe.

The Plenary session of the Conference ended with the presentation of  the report prepared by Volonteurope entitled: “The Impact of Enlargement and Migration on Social Cohesion and Fundamental Rights in the EU”.  Access report

The 23rd Annual Volonteurope Conference was also the occasion where the ceremony of the  8th Active Citizens of Europe Awards, hosted by H.E. President of Malta at Valletta Palace of Grand Masters were announced.

The launch was held on the 30th  at The Palace Hotel, Sliema.

The European Patients’ Academy is a 5 year project funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a joint undertaking of the European commission and EFPIA. The consortium is led by the European Patients’ Forum (EPF) and made up of several European patient organizations, academic institutions, not-for-profit organizations and pharmaceutical companies.

EUPATI aims to make a substantial and measurable difference to patients, providing the tools and the knowledge for their empowerment and meaningful involvement in pharmaceutical innovation, safety of medicines and access to treatments. It aims to inform the general as well as the more hard-to-reach patient community, raising public awareness of the development of new treatments.

In order to successfully  implement EUPATI Project across Europe, in each participating country an EUPATI National Liaison team (NLT) has been created.

National Liaison Teams are the temporary task forces usually composed of three members, each one representing a stakeholder group (patients, pharmaceutical industry, academia). Together they work to:

• establish the best country-specific approach to implement the “EUPATI National Platforms” (ENPs)in their respective countries;
• help the EUPATI management team understand the educational needs on medicine development at a national level and feed this back into EUPATI’s development work;
• disseminate information about EUPATI education material, newsletters into their country and to raise public interest about EUPATI o encourage greater national patient involvement in medicines research and development.

The Maltese EUPATI NLT is chaired by Gertrude Buttigieg (Malta Health Network) while Prof. Pierre Mallia (University of Malta) represents the  Academia and Ms Margot Pisani (PRIMA)  represents pharmaceutical industry.

For the launch the audience was addressed by

Gertrude Buttigieg, Malta Health Network (MHN), Patient Representative of the EUPATI Malta NLT, Malta

Eibhlín Mulroe, Irish Platform for Patients’ Organisations, Science and Industry (IPPOSI), EUPATI Project Partner, Ireland

Prof. Pierre Mallia, University of Malta, Academic Representative of the EUPATI Malta NLT, Malta

Margot Pisani, PRIMA, Pharmaceutical Industry Representative of the EUPATI Malta NLT, Malta

Silvano Berioli, European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP), EUPATI Project Partner, Italy

Theme: Health for the next 5 years

Event was well attended by the general public and MEP candidates who were very interested to hear to views presented during the meeting.