Following the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union as of 1 February 2020, Alzheimer Europe has set out below a brief overview of the impact of this change on a number of policy areas at a European level and what it means for the European dementia movement.
What has changed
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The UK no longer has representation in any EU institutions or agencies. This includes, European Commission, the European Council, the European Parliament, the European Medicine’s Agency, the European Economic and Social Committee (amongst others).
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The number of MEPs has been reduced to 705 (from751) – 27 of the UK’s 73 seats were reallocated to other Member States.
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As a result of there being no UK MEPS, the UK is no longer represented in the European Alzheimer’s Alliance (EAA) – though the EAA gained some new members through the redistributed seats.
What has stayed the same
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The membership of Alzheimer Europe and the European Working Group of People with Dementia (EWGPWD) is unaffected by any of these changes – we will continue to work with our UK colleagues as before.
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As the “transition period” has come into effect (concluding at the end of 2020), current EU legislation will continue to apply to the EU (meaning no changes to travel etc.).
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Any UK involvement in current EU-funded research and/or projects will continue until the conclusion of the projects.
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The UK will, during the transition period, accept authorisation decisions of the EMA with regards to medicines.
What is not yet clear
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The UK’s future involvement with EU programmes such as the EU Health Programme (which funded the Joint Actions on Dementia) or the Horizon Europe research programme has not been decided.
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Cooperation in areas related to data sharing are unclear and will be subject to an adequacy decision of the EU.