The European Commission discusses how to proceed in their Alzheimer’s initiative with Member States

Monday 14 December 2009

The European Commission organised a meeting on 14 December to discuss with representatives of Member States on how best to progress with their planned Alzheimer’s initiative in respect of the Joint Action.

The following Member States were represented: Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic, Sweden and the UK with Finland submitting a document to the meeting in which the country expressed its interest in this type of collaboration.

Delegates discussed:

1. Financing and calls for new projects. The financing of the Joint Action will need to follow the same procedure as all public health projects. The call for new projects will probably be launched before the end of the year and the deadline for submitting the project will be in March or April 2010. Only Member States can coordinate a Joint Action, but it may be possible for Member States to involve researchers or NGOs from their respective countries in the application.
2. Coordination of the project. France will be the coordinator of this Joint Action as well and coordinate with Member States in order to submit the application in time for the Commission deadline.
3. Topics for discussion. It was also suggested to concentrate on the following topics for discussions between Member States: Early detection
4. Prevention, health determinants and promotion of healthy brain lifestyle
5. Epidemiology and registration
6. Network of rights and autonomy
7. Coordination with Joint programming initiative
8. Training and workforce issues
9. Best and bad practices – Dementia care models

Alzheimer Europe was represented by Jean Georges, Executive Director and Charles Scerri, Board member of Alzheimer Europe, represented Malta at the meeting.