Council of European Dentists

President Dr Wolfgang Doneus

Transparency register: 4885579968-84
Avenue de la Renaissance 1
B-1000 Brussels
T +32 (0)2 736 34 29
F +32 (0)2 740 20 26
ced@eudental.eu
www.eudental.eu

SECTION I EU TOPICS
RELEVANT TO THE DEN-
TAL PROFESSION
IMPLEMENTING MINAMATA
CONVENTION ON MERCURY
On 7 July, the European Commis-
sion (EC) organised a stakeholder
consultation workshop to present
the preliminary report by ICF Inter-
national on the EU Implementation
of the Minamata Convention on
Mercury. This report intends to as-
sist the EC by identifying measures
that need to be taken at EU level in
order to comply with the Conven-
tion. Comments to the draft report
are expected by 31 July and the
CED is drafting its response. More
information can be found here.
SCENIHR CONSULTATION ON
NANOMATERIALS IN MEDICAL
DEVICES
On 18 July, the EC launched a
Consultation on the potential health
effects of nanomaterials used in
medical devices to comment on the
SCENIHR Preliminary Opinion on
the Potential Health Effects of 14
Nanomaterials Used in Medical De-
vices adopted by written procedure
on 17 July. The CED is analysing
the preliminary opinion and intends
to reply to the public consultation by
the 3
rd
October deadline.
TRANSPARENCY MEASURES
ON NANOMATERIALS
On 30 June, the EC organised a
workshop to discuss the preliminary
results of a study supporting the EC
on the preparation of an impact as-
sessment aimed at identifying and
developing the most adequate
means to increase transparency
and ensure regulatory oversight on
nanomaterials on the market. A
public consultation is undergoing
until 5
th
August and the CED is pre-
paring its response.
EUROPEAN PROFESSIONAL
CARD (EPC)
The EC continues to assess which
will be the professions that will par-
ticipate in the first phase introduc-
tion of the EPC process among the
list of seven proposed by the EC in
April (nurses, doctors, pharmacists,
physiotherapists, engineers, moun-
tain guides & real estate agents). It
is likely that the EC will start at least
with nurses and mountain guides
due to the significant mobility of
these professionals. The implement-
ing act(s) is expected in autumn and
it is being discussed in the so-called
Focus Group on the EPC whose
meeting reports are available here.
GENERAL DATA PROTECTION
REGULATION
During its meeting on 5 6 June,
the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA)
Council reached a partial general
approach on specific issues of the
draft Regulation, among others, the
territorial scope and the transfer of
personal data to third countries. In
its press release, the Greek Presi-
dency stressed that the agreement
did not exclude future changes to
the text nor mandate the Presidency
to engage in informal trilogues with
the European Parliament. The Ital-
ian Presidency will continue to work
on drafting the Councils first read-
ing position.
CROSS-BORDER DIRECTIVE
On 10 July, the EC urged 12 mem-
ber States to notify full implementa-
tion of cross-border healthcare
rules. To date, these Member
States have not or not fully turned
this Directive into national law, de-
spite being required to do so by 25
October 2013. These countries
have two months to inform the
Commission of measures taken to
implement Directive 2011/24/EU.
Failure to notify adequate measures
could lead to the Commission refer-
ring the cases to the EU Court of
Justice.
5
TH
MEETING OF EHEALTH
NETWORK
On 13 May, the eHealth Network
held its 5
th
meeting in Athens.
The members discussed new multi-
annual work plan, continuation of
services piloted under the epSOS
project, Connecting Europe Facility,
Commissions Green Paper on
mHealth, general eHealth affairs,
ePrescription guidelines, as well as
SNOMED CT and electronic health
records. More information can be
found here. Next meeting of the
eHealth Network is planned on 18
November in Brussels.
EHEALTH FORUM
The eHealth Forum took place on
12 14 May in Athens. The Forum
gives the opportunity to discuss how
technology can bring positive
CED EU INFO
Issue 3 July 2014
Introduction
Welcome to the 3
rd
issue of CED EU Info of 2014. This issue is divided in two sections: the first section provides updates
on EU topics relevant to the dental profession and the second section contains more general information regarding EU
policy.
2 / 2
changes into healthcare systems
and how it can tackle todays health
and ageing challenges. This year
the main objective of the Forum was
to demonstrate how the successful
use of eHealth tools, developed as
a result of EU research and innova-
tion funding could be an inspiration
for other EU countries. The partici-
pants also discussed the issues of
ePrescription, innovation partner-
ships and mHealth.
ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE
On 25 June, the EC published an
updated road map of its Action Plan
Against the rising threats from An-
timicrobial Resistance. Currently
WHO has launched a consultation
until 1 September to develop a
global action plan on antimicrobial
resistance. The CED Board Task
Force on Antibiotics is monitoring
these developments.
EU STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK
ON HEALTH AND SAFETY AT
WORK 2014 - 2020
On 6 June, the EC adopted a
Communication on an EU Strategic
Framework on Health and Safety at
Work 2014 2020, identifying
seven strategic objectives and pre-
senting key actions and instruments
to address these. One of the strate-
gic objectives is to address the age-
ing of the European workforce and
improve prevention of work-related
diseases to tackle existing and new
risks such as nanomaterials. More
information can be found here.
EXPERT PANEL ON EFFEC-
TIVE WAYS OF INVESTING IN
HEALTH
Established by Commission Deci-
sion 2012/C 198/06 to provide
sound and timely scientific advice
on effective ways of investing in
health, this Expert Panel published
on 15 July its final opinion on the
definition of a frame of reference in
relation to primary care with a spe-
cial emphasis on financing systems
and referral systems.
PATIENT SAFETY PACKAGE
On 19 June, the European Com-
mission published a patient
safety package. The package high-
lights how the Commission and the
EU Member States address the
challenges of patient safety, pro-
gress made since 2009 and barriers
to overcome in order to improve pa-
tient safety as foreseen in the
Council Recommendation of 2009.
The package consists of the follow-
ing documents: the Commissions
second implementation report on
the 2009 Council Recommenda-
tion, results of the public consulta-
tion on patient safety and quality
of care, Eurobarometer survey on
citizens perception of quality of care
and patients experience with
healthcare, the Commissions Work-
ing Group on Patient Safety and
Quality of Care (PSCQWG) reports
on education and training of
health professionals on patient
safety (with CED contributions) and
on reporting and learning sys-
tems for patient safety incidents.
All the documents are available
here.
SCENIHR FINAL OPINION ON
NANOSILVER
On 16 June, SCENIHR published its
final opinion on the safety, health,
environmental effects and the role
of nanosilver in antimicrobial resis-
tance. The aim of the opinion was to
assess whether the use of
nanosilver in medical care and in
consumer products could result in
additional risks compared to more
traditional uses of silver and if the
use of nanosilver to control bacterial
growth could result in resistance of
micro-organisms.
SECTION II GENERAL EU
POLICY
NEW EUROPEAN PARLIA-
MENT
On 1 July, the new and re-elected
Members of the European Parlia-
ment (MEPs) took up their duties
and held their first plenary session.
They re-elected Martin Schulz as
President of the European Parlia-
ment. Mr Schulz is the first Presi-
dent in the history of the Parliament
to be re-elected for a second two
and a half year term. The Parlia-
ment also approved the composition
of its committees. The full list of
members of each committee is
available here.
EPSCO COUNCIL MEETING
On 19-20 June 2014, the Employ-
ment, Social Policy, Health and the
Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO)
held a meeting in Luxembourg. The
Council discussed the future work
on two draft regulations concerning
medical devices and in vitro medical
devices with a view to agreeing on a
position in autumn. The Council also
adopted conclusions on economic
crisis and healthcare. The conclu-
sions outline the impact of the eco-
nomic crisis on the healthcare sys-
tems across the EU and suggests
ways of making them more resilient.
ITALIAN PRESIDENCY OF EU
COUNCIL
On 1 July, Italy took over the presi-
dency of the EU Council for the next
6 months. The Italian Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi presented the presi-
dencys priorities to the European
Parliament. The Programme of the
Italian Presidency is available here.
Comments, questions and con-
tributions please contact:
ced@eudental.eu