The aim of this proposal is to submit proposal for two presidency conferences organized under the auspices of the Slovakian Presidency to the Council of the European Union. The Presidency conferences are to be partly financed under the work programme 2016. There are two conferences to be followed in this proposal: (1) a conference on ‘Prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases and healthy lifestyles’ and (2) a conference on ‘Alzheimer’s disease - the epidemic of the third millennium. Are we ready to face it’?

(1) ‘Prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases and healthy lifestyles’
The conference will focus on the impact of the reduction and elimination of risk factors causing non-communicable disease and support the EU aims in the area of chronic diseases mitigation.
The objective is to point to the issue of non-communicable chronic diseases and healthy lifestyle and to nourish the discussion to foster the topic on the European level.

(2) ‘Alzheimer’s disease - the epidemic of the third millennium. Are we ready to face it?
The aim is to promote research, prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of dementia. Our aim also is to strengthen the coordination within Member states of relevant policies in the field of dementia and discuss development of the future steps in the area of dementia.

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Smoking and other forms of tobacco consumption are considered the single most important cause of preventable morbidity and premature mortality worldwide. Efforts to reduce the devastation of tobacco-related deaths and illness in the EU consist of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The TPD lays down rules governing the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related products. The TPD stipulates that Member States shall require manufacturers and importers of tobacco products to submit to their competent authorities information, via a common entry gate (EU-CEG) – an IT tool designed to ensure uniform application of the reporting and notification obligations, harmonise the submission of data, facilitate comparison and reduce administrative burden.

The general objective of the Joint Action on Tobacco Control will be to provide support for the implementation of the TPD throughout the 28 EU MS through the mining of EU-CEG data, supporting of laboratory collaborations and effort to evaluate priority additives. The specific aims of the project are:

• To ensure appropriate coordination and evaluation
• To support the dissemination of information to the public, regulators and researchers.
• To enhance the ease of access to the data collected through the EU CEG
• To monitor and provide support to the tasks of tobacco and e-cigarette product regulation
• Assist EU MS networking and collaborations between laboratories for tobacco evaluation.
• Support EU MS in the process of monitoring and updating priority additives
• To integrate the JATC results into national policies

With the above in mind, this proposal comes at a perfect timing to aid the regulatory activities that would be needed across the EU MS with regards to the implementation of the TPD across 28 EU MS spanning a population of 508 Million people.
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Strengthening voluntary cooperation between Member States to improve the health of EU citizens

Malta will be holding the Presidency of the EU Council between January and June 2017. As part of this Presidency, Malta will be focusing upon voluntary cooperation between member states in two main areas, which are Structured Cooperation between Health Systems as a mechanism to improve access to innovative and highly specialised services, medicines and technologies and halting the rise of childhood obesity. The general objective of this proposal is the convening of two high level technical workshops bringing together experts from Member States to discuss the identified thematic priorities. These discussions will form two outcome reports that may be used as a basis for the elaboration of Council Conclusions.
The Maltese EU Presidency in 2017 will explore the scope of voluntary structured cooperation between Member States, to ensure access to innovative medical technologies as well as provision of highly specialised health services. Political focus will be on the needs of small populations. Two specific areas where sustainable models of structured cooperation could be of particular relevance for small populations are health workforce and medical technology. The scope of cooperation in these fields both between individual Member States as well as within the context of the EU will be further explored in two policy briefs being drawn up as part of this initiative.
Tackling childhood obesity will be of EU added value across all MS. Malta has prioritised childhood obesity as one of its thematic priority areas. It is planned to take actions in this area by bringing together technical people and experts from member states working in this area at a technical workshop. To this aim two policy briefs will be developed dealing with identifying evidence-based interventions across Europe to tackle childhood obesity and to develop guidelines for the procurement of school meals.
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