This issue of ECHAMP News shows that complementary medicine, in particular homeopathy and anthroposophic medicine, is increasingly the subject for constructive discussion in Europe. This well-deserved attention will allow the stakeholders and decision makers to offer the many users around Europe the health products and services they are looking for.

Nand De Herdt
ECHAMP General Secretary

Homeopathy is safe
Patient safety is high on the political agenda of the European Union. The European Commission estimates that 197,000 deaths per year in the EU are caused by adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and that the total cost to society of ADRs in the EU is €79 billion. A new report concludes that homeopathic medicines are safe. 
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New European information centre on complementary medicine
The new European Information Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (EICCAM) has been set up to communicate scientific and health care related information on complementary medicine to the media, politicians and legislators.
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ECHAMP Membership Assembly 2009
The ECHAMP annual Membership Assembly and expert workshop will be held in Prague on 27-28 April. The expert workshop will focus on the role of the national manufacturing associations in influencing change at EU level.
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The ‘Pharma Package’ and its implications for homeopathic and anthroposophic medicinal products
ECHAMP President Max Daege explains how the European Commission’s Pharma-Package, with its renewed vision for the pharmaceutical sector, contains points of importance to the industry for homeopathic and anthroposophic medicinal products and towards better integration of complementary medicine in EU legislation and EU health politics.
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The harmonisation of CAM and the subsidiarity principle
Harmonisation is one of the highest aims of the European Union; lawyer Johan Hulshof concludes that a more active policy of the EU in the field of complementary medicine is fully compatible with the relevant articles of the EC Treaty and not in conflict with the principle of subsidiarity.
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Editor: Karen Chapman, ECHAMP PR and Communications Consultant