Over the past years, a number of key activities were organised by the European Alzheimer's Alliance which meets regularly in the European Parliament for an update on relevant activities of Alzheimer Europe and other stakeholders in the field of dementia.

Amongst the various initiatives undertaken by the Alliance, we would like to highlight the following:

2012

• On 28 February 2012, Elisabeth Morin-Chartier MEP (France) hosted a lunch debate at the European Parliament - on behalf of fellow MEP Françoise Grossetête, who is also the Chair of the European Alzheimer's Alliance. The debate was in two parts: "Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) in the spotlight" and "Speeding up drug discovery for Alzheimer’s disease: the PharmaCog project". Ms Morin-Chartier was joined by Dr. Elisabetta Vaudano, Dr. Jill Richardson and Dr. Alexandra Auffret.

2011

• On 6 December 2011, Frieda Brepoels, MEP (Belgium) and Vice-Chair of the European Alzheimer’s Alliance, hosted a lunch debate at the European Parliament entitled "Public perceptions of Alzheimer’s disease and the value of diagnosis". Jean Georges, Executive Director, Alzheimer Europe, presented a summary of the findings.
• On 28 June 2011, Sirpa Pietikäinen, MEP (Finland) hosted a lunch debate at the European Parliament which presented "the Alzheimer Cooperative Valuation in Europe" or ALCOVE project. Ms Pietikäinen was joined by project leader Dr. Armelle Leperre-Desplanques.
• On 15 March 2011, Marina Yannakoudakis, MEP (UK) hosted a lunch debate at the European Parliament about "European activities on long-term care: What implications for people with dementia and their carers?". Arnaud Senn and Wojciech Dziworski gave presentations on the work being done on long-term care at the European level.

2010

• On 7 December 2010, Nessa Childers, MEP (Ireland) hosted a lunch debate at the European Parliament entitled "The Joint Programming of research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (JPND). What progress so far?". She was joined by Pieter Jelle Visser and Elmar Nimmesgern, who gave an update of JPND activites.

2009

• In September 2009, Frieda Brepoels, MEP (Belgium) hosted a lunch debate in the European Parliament "European action on dementia" at which Antoni Montserrat and Maria-José Vidal-Ragout outlined the European Commission Alzheimer's initiatives and the proposal for joint programming for research in the field of dementia.
• In March 2009, following the successful adoption by the European Parliament of Written Declaration 80/2008 which called upon the European Commission to develop a European Action Plan on Alzheimer's Disease, Françoise Grossetête, MEP (France) hosted a lunch debate in the European Parliament  "Towards a European Action Plan on Alzheimer's disease" at which Florence Lustman, Coordinator of the French Alzheimer's Plan and Antoni Montserrat from the European Commission participated as keynote speakers.

2008

• In December 2008, Jan Tadeusz Masiel, MEP (Poland) hosted a lunch debate in the European Parliament  "The rising cost of dementia" at which Prof. Anders Wimo from the Karolinska Institutet present the findings of the socio-economic work package of Alzheimer Europe's Commission financed "European Collaboration on Dementia - EuroCoDe" project.
• In September 2008, five members of the European Alzheimer's Alliance, Françoise Grossetête (France), John Bowis (United Kingdom), Katalin Levai (Hungary), Jan Tadeusz Masiel (Poland) and Antonios Trakatellis (Greece) launched a European Parliament Written Declaration on the priorities in the fight against Alzheimer's disease.
• In September 2008, Katalin Levai, MEP (Hungary) hosted a lunch debate in the European Parliament "The treatment of Alzheimer's disease, current perspectives and future trends" at which Prof. Alexander Kurz provided an overview of existing treatments, as well as an outlook on current research in this field.