The topic of the conference was the mental and physical condition of young Europeans and the role of civil society organisations in supporting it. The event was organised as part of the Polish presidency of the EU Council on the initiative of the Minister for Civil Society, Adriana Porowska, and the Civil Society Organisations' Group of the EESC.
Conference on 'The role of civil society organisations in ensuring the health security of children and young people within the EU' co-organised by the European Economic and Social Committee's Civil Society Organisations' Group and the Minister for Civil Society of the Republic of Poland,on 15 May in Warsaw, Poland
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) calls for a European flagship initiative for health, aiming to build a cross-cutting health architecture within the European Union. It also calls on the European Commission to publish an Action Plan on Rare Diseases with clearly achievable targets.
launch the proposal for a comprehensive European Action Plan on Rare Diseases (APRD) with SMART targets that can be achieved by 2030 to enable the diagnosis of rare disease patients within one year;
set up a Steering Group for the European APRD composed of experts from Member States, EURORDIS members and the EESC to ensure coordination and cooperation, monitoring and supervision of the APRD;
encourage agreements with Member States on the content, updating, application and monitoring of national plans for RD.
believes that mental health literacy for the whole of society is needed, both to fight stigma and to facilitate an early intervention and diagnosis of mental health conditions;
considers that relevant policies should aim for an integrated mental health system based on cooperation among the sectors of education, employment, social care and mental health care;
believes empowerment and support for self-representation are key to ensuring the full participation of people in what concerns them and to co-producing strategies and programmes. This involves the planning, design, provision and evaluation of care. It should be accompanied by technical and financial support for forms of self-management.
Only nine EU countries criminalise forced sterilisation as a distinct offence, while 13 allow it to be performed on persons with disabilities – and in three of those countries that includes minors. When it comes to the sexual and reproductive health rights of women with disabilities, the EU is far from being a union of equality, an EESC hearing revealed
the Commission to put the topic of informal carers high on the political agenda and to establish a Platform for the exchange of best practices among Member States;
Member States to adopt policies that i) encourage the provision and uptake of high-quality, community-based long-term care services, and ii) ensure that informal carers have access to respite services and preventive medicine to tackle the high risk of burnout and physical and mental overload to which they are exposed;
Member States to take appropriate measures to ensure that the decision to take on informal care is voluntary, that gender inequalities are tackled and that informal carers can keep their jobs and levels of pay thanks to more flexible working conditions and can easily re-enter the job market if they are forced to leave it.
Healthcare professionals and civil society representatives called on policy-makers to introduce a ‘Health check’ for all future policies. Their demand just before the elections to the European Parliament: the ‘Right to Health’ must remain at the top of the EU and national agendas, as citizens demanded at the Conference on the Future of Europe.
