Ageing, Children and Gender Issues

The seminar hosted by Christel Schaldemose (S & D, DK) focused on men’s health as a vital public health issue. Health Commissioner Tonio Borg highlighted the importance of reducing health inequalities and explained how the Commission takes into account the gender dimension within its policies to improve men’s health. He stressed that prevention of diseases is much more cost effective than the cure. The résumé of the event is available here Background information On 25 (...)

Amnesty International Ireland, together with 15 other organisations from across Europe, has been running the END Female Genital mutilation (FGM) European Campaign since 2009 to promote awareness and challenge the EU to end FGM and other forms of violence against women. On 27 February 2013 the Seminar "Towards European Action to end Female Genital Mutilation" took place in the European Parliament, as part of the END FGM-European Campaign aiming "to put female genital mutilation high on the (...)

On the occasion of the European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, the European Institute of Women’s Health (EIWH), an EPHA member, presented its policy brief "Women and cervical cancer in the EU: promoting cervical cancer prevention" emphasising the need to reach a consensus across the European Union to put an end to the existing disparities between Member States. With 31 300 women developing the disease and 13 600 dying of it every year in the EU, cervical cancer remains the second (...)

14 February - Valentine’s Day is a good opportunity to think about women’s hearts. On its latest policy briefing, the European Institute of Women’s Health (EIWH) highlighted the key differences between women and men in matters of the heart - such as risk factors, symptoms, treatment and biomedical research. Traditionally regarded as a male disease, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one killer of women worldwide. It is also a major cause of serious illness and (...)

This article provides information about a vital programme implemented by EPHA partner organisation SASTIPEN Roma Center for Health Policies, based in Romania. Their ’’Health Mediation Programme: Opportunity for increasing the employment rate amongst roman women” is an example of how economic and health objectives can be tackled simultaneously. Health Mediation Programme The health mediation programme represents the “business card” for Romania when discussing (...)

The Council of the European Union adopted its conclusions on Violence Against Women at its 3206th Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer affairs (EPSCO) Council meeting on 6 December 2012. The council calls to consider 2015 as the European Year on Zero Tolerance for Violence against Women. Considering the fact that violence against women affects society as a whole, the Council adopted a few conclusions to tackle the problem. There is NO justification whatsoever for violence (...)

The Second Annual Convention of the Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion took place this December 5-7. It stressed the need for robust social policies at national and EU level able to deal with the current economic and social crisis. Ever since the poverty reduction targets were agreed (20 million by 2020), the numbers of poor and socially excluded people in the EU have actually risen. In order to support social inclusion of disadvantaged people, access to adequate services and (...)

Figures show significant drop in mortality, but the scale of the problem is huge and will increase. Released by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Heart Network (EHN), these figures represent the first comprehensive overview of the impact of cardiovascular disease (CVD) since 2008. The statistics show that efforts to reduce heart disease deaths are successful, with mortality now falling in most of the continent. At the same time, the report shows the huge burden CVD (...)

Following a failed attempt to revise the current European Working Time Directive (EWTD) in the period 2004-2009, the European Commission started another two-stage consultation process with the social partners in 2010, which is scheduled to conclude by the end of 2012. The EPHA Briefing on the EWTD provides background information on the Directive and examines some of the key sticking points at the heart of the ongoing debate. The current Directive - 2003/88/EC - unintentionally created a (...)

Amnesty International launched this summer a petition calling on the EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding to play a more pivotal role in enhancing Europe’s human rights protection. It is summertime in Europe: time to relax. But for an estimated 180,000 girls throughout Europe, their summer holidays will mean being forced to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM). In addition, one in ten European women will suffer sexual violence and a quarter will endure physical violence. Their (...)