The newly elected members of the European Parliament have started their five year mandate. Just before their summer break, the 735 MEPs took their first decisions on the key positions for the seventh Parliamentary term (July 2009 – June 2014). Christine Marking gives an overview of the decisions, as well as an outlook for the real start in September.

An important item on the health agenda for the European Commission and the Council Presidencies in the coming years is the battle against antibiotic resistance. To date the only activity has been to analyse the problem, which has been identified as serious by the different expert committees. First measures, which mainly deal with raising awareness of the problem, have been launched by the Member States. It’s important that practitioners and researchers of complementary medicine are involved in this debate, since increasing numbers of studies show that complementary medicine treatments provide an efficient alternative.

Within the 7th Research Framework Programme of the European Union a pan-European consortium of researchers has been selected to carry out a project on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM): CAMbrella.

Nand De Herdt
ECHAMP President

Resistance to antibiotics – discussion under Swedish Presidency
Resistance to antibiotics is a priority topic under the Swedish Presidency with a number of EU-led initiatives aimed at reducing use of antibiotics and stimulating further research and development. Nand De Herdt calls on the EU institutions to develop and promote the important contribution complementary medicine can make in this field.
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Homeopathy – an alternative to antibiotics?
The World Health Organisation has called antibiotic resistance ‘one of the world's most pressing public health problems’. Dr Ton Nicolai describes the use and misuse of antibiotics, summarising research into the use of homeopathy that shows it to be an effective alternative to antibiotics.
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EU awards €1.5 million grant for CAM research
CAMbrella, a pan-European consortium of researchers, has been awarded funding under the EU 7th Research Framework Programme to carry out a project on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), with the aim of developing a road map for future European research into complementary medicine.
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The new Parliament takes shape
The newly elected members of the European Parliament have started their five year mandate. Just before their summer break, the 735 MEPs took their first decisions on the key positions for the seventh Parliamentary term. Christine Marking gives an overview of the decisions, as well as an outlook for September.
Read more…

Editor: Karen Chapman, ECHAMP PR and Communications Consultant