The second EU Homeopathy Day was celebrated in Brussels on 2 April 2009. The theme of the day was 'Homeopathy for a healthier Europe – Because it works for me!' It focused on the important role that homeopathy plays in promoting health in individual patients, and how it can contribute to European health care.

The event was held in the European Parliament, hosted by Marian Harkin MEP. It was attended by an audience of some 100 European politicians and officials, national and regional representatives in Brussels and representatives of the patients’, practitioners’, and doctors’ associations and of industry. The day was a joint initiative of the European associations of patients, practitioners, doctors and pharmacists of homeopathy and the European homeopathic industry association.

Dr Ton Nicolai, President of European Committee for Homeopathy, the European association of homeopathic doctors, opened and moderated the event. He explained why so many patients choose homeopathy and what it has to offer – a holistic approach, cost-effectiveness and safety: ‘Today’s European citizens feel increasingly responsible for their own lives, for their own health. They turn towards homeopathy because they have found conventional treatment ineffective for their illness, they have concerns about adverse effects of conventional prescription drugs or because the holistic approach mirrors their own values and philosophical orientation towards health and life.’

Marian Harkin MEP emphasised the important role homeopathy plays in promoting health in Europe. She spoke briefly of her own experience of homeopathy, and identified the key concerns of the patients, the doctors, practitioners and industry. On behalf of the European Parliament, she said ‘We recognise the choices you make. We will work with you to integrate complementary medicine, including homeopathy, into EU health policy’.

Helen Llewelyn, a patient of homeopathy who has suffered from endometriosis since she was 13 years old, gave a personal and moving story of her long and difficult journey towards health. She described years of debilitating pain and difficulties, the conventional treatment she had received, and the considerable difference that homeopathy has made to her health and her life. ‘Homeopathy helped me enormously and continues to help me today. For the first time in my disease’s history, someone has understood, someone finally ‘got’ what I have been experiencing.’

Professor Jaap Sijmons, Professor of health law, Utrecht University, explained how free choice of doctor and treatment is a basic right within the EU. He argued that legislators in Brussels should act in order to take patient’s rights seriously; they should develop a consistent regulation which does not exclude large parts of vital importance to homeopathic and anthroposophic medicines. He finished with an urgent call: ‘We are running out of time. Over the counter homeopathic and anthroposophic products are threatened with a ban. There is an urgent need to speed up the pace of respecting patients’ rights as regards complementary medicine.’

Professor George Lewith, Professor of health research at the University of Southampton talked about the need to approach the topic of complementary medicine from the point of view of the patients. Patients suffer due to lack of collaboration amongst medical and health professionals on the provision of complementary therapies. He spoke about the ‘turf war’ between conventional and complementary practitioners and called for ‘co-operation around the bedside or in the surgery’ and for ‘more thoughtful health strategies that look at the way patients manage their own health and work with them to take an integrated approach to health care’.

Dr Elio Rossi, Clinical Director of the Homeopathic Clinic, Campo di Marte Hospital, Regional Centre of Reference for the Tuscany Network for Integrative Medicine explained how homeopathy and complementary medicine have been integrated into the public health system in Tuscany, resulting in 59 public clinics for complementary medicine by 2008, which have received high user satisfaction. Dr Elio Rossi explained that, ‘This integration of complementary medicine in the public regional healthcare system is unanimously considered to be the most significant in Italy and at European level.‘

Dr Ton Nicolai closed the event by emphasizing an urgent need to include homeopathy in a constructive EU health policy: ‘It is this orientation towards self-healing and health promotion that makes homeopathy and other CAM approaches especially appropriate…. It is time for the European institutions and EU health policy to fully acknowledge the important role this safe and effective therapy plays in promoting health and preventing disease for so many European citizens.’

The meeting finished with a reception, also hosted by Marian Harkin MEP, allowing the guests a chance to network and talk to the speakers and each other in more detail. For further information on the speakers and their presentations please click here.

Karen Chapman
ECHAMP PR and Communications consultant