This year, the annual ECHAMP expert seminar brought together a lively panel of expert speakers in Madrid on 26 April to speak about new initiatives amongst key stakeholders in the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) sector to speak with a united voice at EU level. The aim was to build further collaboration in order to secure the future of homeopathic and anthroposophic medicinal products at EU level.

The seminar opened with a presentation by Christine Marking, EU public affairs consultant. She spoke about the changing EU political environment and its implications for health and explained how on most issues, the Commission and Parliament prefer to work with a single interlocuteur that can represent the full range of interests. She gave several examples of the benefits of building a common platform and speaking with a united voice in EU advocacy work. She identified some key criteria for successful partnerships – transparency, equity and clear leadership, as well as the need for clear roles and responsibilities for all players.

The need for a single voice and common platform is all the more important for the CAM sector since the restructuring of the Commission has put health policy and pharmaceutical products under the responsibility of the same Commissioner (DG SANCO) (see ECHAMP E-News March/April 2010).

The panel of speakers included representatives of the leading European associations in the sector. The first five presentations were by some of the European associations, representing the different groups of stakeholders: Dr Ton Nicolai from CAMDOC Alliance, which represents 132 associations of medical doctors practising complementary medicine, Seamus Connolly, President of European Federation of Complementary and Alternative Medicine  (EFCAM), Enid Segall from the European Federation of Homeopathic Patients’ Associations (EFHPA), René de Winter from European Federation of Patients’ Associations for Anthroposophic Medicine , and Nand De Herdt, President of ECHAMP.  The second group of presentations were on specific joint initiatives between some of the associations: Dr Ton Nicolai presented the new European Parliament Interest Group on CAM, Christine Liebing-Gabel presented EU Homeopathy Day, and Stephen Gordon talked about joint activities between the members of the informal CAM Stakeholders Group.

Together the speakers presented an inspiring picture of many new initiatives that are underway to raise awareness on the importance of complementary and alternative medicine in the EU; this is reflected in increasing visibility of the issues in the EU institutions, and there are signs that the European Commission is more open to considering CAM.

Furthermore, the new Commissioner, Mr John Dalli, has made a commitment to respecting the needs of patients. Nevertheless there remains an obvious mismatch between the needs of the 100 million patients of homeopathy and anthroposophic medicine and the lack of priority given to these therapies at EU level. It is clear that there is an increasingly urgent need for the politicians and policy makers to move from a position of awareness and understanding to concrete action, in favour of these well-established European therapies, and the special type of medicinal products that they use.

The seminar was attended by ECHAMP’s full, corresponding and associate members, as well as many interested experts from Spain. ECHAMP’s presence in Spain attracted a great deal of interest in the Spanish media, who covered the story from a Spanish angle, showing the deficit of appropriate legislation in Spain, and the difficulties that it can bring to the sector. Click here for a copy of the press release.

All the presentations from the seminar are available on the members’ only section of the ECHAMP website. If you would like a copy but are not a full member of ECHAMP, please e-mail office@echamp.eu.

Karen Chapman
ECHAMP PR and Communications Consultant