The Network: ENSP YOUTH CONTEST - Deadline extended; Danish tobacco control plan; WHO webinar; FIRMST 2020; EC calls for ideas; Meeting of the group experts in Tobacco Policy; Global week of Action on NCDs; Europe's Beating Cancer Plan;The Union's brief

The ENSP calls for your imagination and creativity in order to produce materials such as posters, infographics or videos to present your message and support one of the 4 themes mentioned below:

Denormalisation of cigarettes and Novel tobacco products (e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products) use by youth.
Smoke free campuses, smoke free schools-smoke free places for youth and the next generations.
Awareness of the health impact of smoking and novel tobacco use.
Counteracting Tobacco Industry tactics to recruit new generation of users.

The purpose of this contest is to inspire young people to get in action, raise their voice against the targeted tactics of the tobacco industry, break the chain, refuse to become the next generation of smokers and novel tobacco product users in Europe and claim a tobacco free future for them and the generations to come.

Submit your proposal electronically until 15 October 2020 to:
contest@ensp.network

Participate in the contest

Civil Society urges European Commission to support the Danish tobacco control plan

Danish Cancer Society supported by ENSP members and other public health organisations submitted a letter to the European Commission, Danish MEPs and the Danish Minister of Health.

The goal is to support the Danish tobacco control plan, as well as individual Member States’ right to protect their children and young people against tobacco smoking.

In February this year, the Danish government and a number of political parties proposed a new tobacco control plan in Denmark. It aims to implement plain packaging of tobacco products and e-cigarettes, point of sales display ban, and a ban on characterizing flavours in tobacco products and e-cigarettes. Implementation of this comprehensive action plan is crucial for protecting Danish children and adolescents from smoking. Nonetheless, the adoption of the law has been postponed until October and currently awaits the EU notification process.

It is imperative that the Commission and the TPD advance European tobacco control rather than block ambitious tobacco control policies initiated by individual member states. Thus, it is strongly recommended that in the coming revision of the TPD the Commission reinforce Article 24 (2) that allows member states to go beyond the directive in order to protect public health.

Danish Cancer Society and undersigned organisations encourage the Commission to support the Danish proposal and to continue to allow the TPD to pave the way for further ambitious European tobacco control policies that protect the health of present and future generations.

SAVE THE DATE
WHO webinar on conflict of interest and undue influence of the industry during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on unhealthy commodity industry tactics and partnerships with governments, CSOs and UN agencies and other stakeholders that challenge coherence in NCD policies and actions due to conflict of interest and potential for undue influence in policy development and implementation.

On 18 September, WHO Civil Society Working on NCDs will present a webinar that aims at exposing industry interference and conflict of interest before and during COVID-19.

Participate to FIRMST 2020 or nominate an expert!

FIRMST is an initiative to encourage and support innovative ideas in young minds, thereby reducing the gaps between professionals of various medical specialties amongst themselves, and experts in allied sciences. Developed as an open and common platform for promoting effective interaction and providing opportunities, on 26 September 2020, FIRMST aims again at connecting everyone from a 1st year student to a top-level academician/researcher.

Taking part in FIRMST provides participants the opportunity to present their work and/or to have a discussion with other participants and experts. Even if not presenting, one can lay the foundation for future educational, training or research programme/s in fields of medical and allied sciences of interest. This will be facilitated not just through the interaction of participants during the forum, within the Meet-the-professor sessions and virtual lounges, but also, after the FIRMST forum; the project will further continue with the establishment of a plethora of opportunities in specialized training and research, including scholarships and grants.

FIRMST 2020 activities include:

Lectures by Experts
Panel Discussions
Oral Presentation by Under 35 years of age Authors of Selected Abstracts
Virtual Meet the Professor Sessions
Virtual Lounges for interaction: Networking

Send the information about any expert in medicine and allied sciences whom you feel would be a valuable speaker to deliver a lecture or be a part of any panel discussions in FIRMST!

Register online until 25 September 2020 (18:00 Moscow Time UTC +3:00) and join the global FIRMST family to follow the proceedings of the Forum for Interdisciplinary Research in Medical Science and Technology!

Commission calls for ideas on new EU missions!

How would you tackle adaptation to climate change? Got an idea to make cities greener? Care about healthy oceans, and healthy soils for food, people and the planet? Want to help conquer cancer? Now you can share your views with the Commission in the EU missions’ call for ideas, open from 1 to 14 September 2020.

The Commission opened a call for ideas seeking feedback and suggestions from citizens on how to adapt to climate change, fight cancer, build climate-neutral and smart cities and ensure healthy oceans, soils and food. The collected ideas will feed into the design of the new Missions under Horizon Europe, a novelty in the next EU research and innovation framework programme. Partly inspired by the Apollo 11 mission to put a man on the moon, European research and innovation missions aim to deliver solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing our world. They thereby contribute to the goals of the European Green Deal and Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. There are five defined mission areas. Each mission represents a portfolio of actions across disciplines and sectors within a certain timeframe and budget.

“As part of the future Horizon Europe programme, missions will help define clear targets and find solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing our world, in turn increasing the effectiveness of research and innovation funding. For this we need citizens to express their views, make proposals and engage in their design and implementation. Together, we will make Europe healthier, greener and more resilient.”

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth

This mission area has a mission board tasked with identifying one or more specific missions for implementation under Horizon Europe.

The mission board consists of 15 experts, including the chair, and is supported by a mission secretariat and an assembly. The Mission Boards will each produce a draft report proposing concrete targets and timelines by the end of May 2020. The draft reports will be the base for further discussion and engagement with citizens and stakeholders until September. The final recommendations of the Mission Boards will be handed over to the European Commission at the European Research & Innovation Days (22-24 September 2020). The selected missions will be announced at the end of 2020 and launched in 2021.

Read more...

Meeting of the group experts in Tobacco Policy

After the last online meeting in March, on June 26, the Commission hosted a webinar with the expert group on tobacco control.

The topics discussed were the implementation and monitoring of the TPD where Member States were in particular encouraged to actively support and take part in preparations for the Article 28 report on the application of the Directive. Regarding the updates on regulatory, enforcement and legal developments, the implementation of provisions of Art. 7 concerning the ban of products imparting characterising flavour was discussed following the expiry of transitional period for certain flavours as of 20 May 2020. The main objective was to ensure that non-compliant products are not placed on the market and properly withdrawn from the EU-CEG database.
Further discussions tackled the topic of other tobacco control developments beyond the TPD, such as Tobacco and e- cigarette advertising, promotion and sponsorship, where DG SANTE expressed the expectation that JATC-2 will further support MS to address challenges in enforcement of TAD and TPD. The group agreed that more enforcement cooperation is needed between MS and that the second Joint Action on Tobacco Control will be a useful platform to take this work forward.

The progress of JATC-1 was highlighted as well. Moreover, the Commission expressed its high appreciation for the JATC-2 and congratulated the newly appointed coordinator, concluding that outputs will bring an important contribution towards tobacco control and may also feed into the cancer plan.

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Global week of Action on NCDs

The Global Week for Action on NCDs 2020 takes place during 7-13 September. A week to keep up momentum for action on chronic disease prevention and control at a pivotal time for the European Union: as pandemic recovery plans are defined and ongoing budget negotiations will frame public health efforts for the coming years. The COVID-19 crisis reflects the impact of major chronic (non-communicable) diseases on our societies and the vulnerability of patients and health care systems.

The European Chronic Disease Alliance outlines 5 key actions to increase efforts undertaken in Europe. These take stock of the COVID-19 crisis, but also recommend a more strategic approach to disease prevention as well as the creation of new structures at EU level to promote health and improve the management of chronic diseases.

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Townhall meeting: Europe's Beating Cancer Plan

Europe's Beating Cancer Plan aims to address cancer across the EU, setting out areas of focus and priorities for Commission action, which supports EU Member States. It is based on four key pillars: prevention, diagnosis, treatment and quality of life. As part of the consultation process, the European Commission invited stakeholders to participate in a virtual town hall meeting where key findings emerging from the consultation have been presented.

The virtual Town Hall Meeting took place on September 10 and it has been facilitated by Dr Josep Figueras, from the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, and chaired by Professors Jose M Martin-Moreno and Tit Albreht.

The Union's latest briefs

The Union released its fifth COVID-19 and Smoking Brief, as well as a revised master brief. After reviewing nearly 40 recent studies published since their last update on the 17 th of July, the fifth brief synthesizes four epidemiological studies and three biochemical studies on smoking and COVID-19. The four epi studies are all based in hospital settings and provide information on patients presenting with COVID-19 disease stage 1 (infection—asymptomatic or mild) and disease stage 3 (severity mandates ICU admission, mechanical ventilation or results in death). The biochemical studies continue to raise important questions about smokers' ACE2 expression — and how nicotine and smoking may impact SARS-cov-2 infection (disease stage 1).

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Read the revised master brief...