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European Environment and Health Action Plan – Consultative Forum Luxembourg

The European Commission organised the one consultative meeting on the European Environment and Health Action Plan

20.01.2009 |

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On December 18th 2008, the European Commission organised the one consultative meeting on the European Environment and Health Action Plan. WECF participated with 2 persons, the executive director and the president of the board of trustees.

The European Commission adopted in 2003 an EU Strategy on Environment and Health, with the overall aim to reduce diseases caused by environmental factors in Europe. This was followed up by the European Environment and Health Action Plan 2004-2010.

The aim of the forum on December 18th, was to update the Consultative Group on the European Commission's Environment and Health activities since 2007, and obtain input for future activities, as the current environment and health action plan ends in 2010.

Presentations were given on ongoing programmes of the European Commission and programmes financed by the European Commission, in particular on Indoor air quality, amongst other presenting the new indoor air quality website: http://iaq.jrc.ec.europa.eu/en/index.cfm
 
The European Commission DG environment reported that a large scale Human biomonitoring programme – to monitor environmental pollutants in European populations – , which had been submitted for funding, and where a great number of member states had already committed cofunding, has been refused, to everyone’s great shock. A next project is being applied for.
 
Recommendations from the forum, among others from WECF, included that:

·      human biomonitoring activities should continue in a clear and comprehensive way and should be linked to the EU Health Examination Survey; the focus should be on its use for policy making. The process should become more formal by establishing an Advisory Group of EU Experts

·      a Green Paper should be developed on indoor air quality, and include the relation to energy performance of buildings and harmonisation of indoor material emission labelling schemes in EU should be elaborated.

·      Nanomaterials and Chemical mixtures should be a key area of funding, research and cooperation

·      A new "Environment & Health Action Plan 2010-2015" should be developed, as environmental health needs more policy priority. Sufficient resources should be ensured as stressed in the EU Parliament Resolution, and not solely for climate change and health.

The new Action Plan should be presented in the 5th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in February 2010 in Parma. 

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