EuroHealthNet members are accountable public bodies with responsibilities and/or expertise in public health, health promotion, health inequalities, disease prevention, or other relevant fields.
Usually national or regional public health institutes, authorities and government departments, they work on improving health, addressing the social determinants of health, and/or reducing health inequalities.
Members are part of all platforms and receive additional core member services. They set the direction of the partnership.
Associate Members are universities, civil society organisations, and others which are not necessarily statutory bodies but identify with EuroHealthNet’s mission and want to take part in our work that is most relevant to them.
Associate members can join one or more of the three platforms and pay a reduced fee for the more limited services received. They have no voting or governance role.
The General Council is one of EuroHealthNet’s two governing bodies. It only comprises members. The General Council meets annually to discuss progress, and to approve annual reports and budgets. The General Council also elects the Executive Board.
Members of the Executive Board are elected from the General Council. They serve terms of two years, during which they develop annual strategies, work plans, and budgets. The Executive Board is informed by an external evaluator.
The Executive Board is made up of:
Observers are mostly Ministries of Health. They play a specific, mutually agreed role. Their status is reviewed and granted on an annual basis by the General Council and is by invitation only. They do not have a voting or governance role.
The 2020 General Council Meeting, an important annual event to bring together all EuroHealthNet members, was held in June. It was our first virtual General Council Meeting, due to pandemic travel restrictions. We were delighted with a keynote video of SANTE Commissioner Kyriakides as well as WHO Europe Regional Director, Dr Hans P. Kluge. We also heard an address by the Director of Social Affairs for the European Commission about the new ESF+, rapid transfers of resources through the COVID Response Initiatives and EU Multiannual Financial Framework, and healthy and active ageing, welfare systems and social protection.
During the meeting, EuroHealthNet members discussed the Partnership’s vital role in EU plans towards healthier and more equal countries and how disease prevention and health promotion must be prioritised for better access to address inequalities and non-communicable diseases, and achieve the goals of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, and the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy for healthy, equitable and sustainable foods. The Partnership reconfirmed that the future for health, social equity and sustainability lies with effective health promotion and the prevention of diseases. This will be achieved through community-based services linking people and professionals to shape the conditions for health equity and wellbeing.
At the meeting, the partnership also discussed our activities concerning:
A new Executive Board was also elected during the General Council meeting, reflecting widening experiences, backgrounds and knowledge as well as expanding geographical and gender diversities in accordance with our ethos and aims.
Prof. Mirosław J. Wysocki (National Institute of Public Health of Poland), retired as a delegate. He was warmly and unanimously thanked for his participation in EuroHealthNet for almost two decades.
The Executive Board met seven times during 2020 (virtually): in January, April, May (twice), September, and November (twice).
For the first time in nearly 25 years, our General Council Meeting is happening online this morning.
— EuroHealthNet (@EuroHealthNet) June 4, 2020
Discussing the strategic direction of the partnership, groundbreaking public health work, and how to address #HealthInequalities and determinants in a changing world. pic.twitter.com/mPnFwdsWAF
On December 3, 2020, EuroHealthNet organised a high-level conference on “Skills for Health: Up- and Re-Skilling for a Sustainable Recovery” for members and other stakeholders from European, national and (sub) national levels.
Conference speakers and over 200 participants examined three aspects of skills for health: (1) changes to the world of work and new skills needed, (2) the skills for good health and wellbeing, and (3) the skills for tomorrow’s health and care systems. Speakers included Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, Vice-President and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge Teresa Ribera (Spain), and Dr Nino Berdzuli, Director of Country Health Programmes for the WHO Regional Office for Europe, amongst many others. With this conference we alerted members and the wider public health community on the EU Skills Agenda. It was a follow up to our expression of support towards the EU Pact for Skills in November 2020, where we delivered a video message.
Given the extraordinary impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on public health and the policy environment, the EuroHealthNet Executive Board requested an extraordinary Policy and Strategy Meeting with all EuroHealthNet members on February 24, 2021. The aim of the meeting was to inform EuroHealthNet members about the changes happening at European level and to seek input on how to shape our collaborative work.
The meeting offered members unique insights on recent EU and WHO policy developments and funding opportunities and helped lay the groundwork for our 2021 policy and advocacy activities and strategic direction for the post-2021 period. Member specifically discussed:
The results of the meeting were incorporated into EuroHealthNet’s Strategic Development Plan 2021-2026, as well as the WHO Europe Memorandum of Understanding.
We continue to make efforts to increase the share of funding from direct participation. We do not accept funding from for-profit bodies.
In addition to internal financial management and planning, an external accountant prepares the annual financial and balance reports, which are then certified by a separate auditing firm. The General Council approves the financial reports at its annual meeting.
EuroHealthNet works in a transparent, ethical, and independent way. We have adopted a code of conduct for the organisation and membership, and ethical guidelines for partnership building. Procurement, risk management, human resource, and financial rules are set out in the EuroHealthNet ‘How We Work’ document, available on request. We consider and evaluate the environmental impacts of all actions and procurement decisions.
EuroHealthNet members, with support from the Brussels office, continued further developing the Thematic Working Group (TWIG) on Best Practice portals, established in 2019. The TWIG divided its activities in four major working areas in 2020.
The first was preparing a workshop for the World Congress on Public Health (“How to improve the uptake of best practices?”).The second was co-organising a series of focus groups with Maastricht University and EuroHealthNet member BZgA. These workshops, which brought together over 60 experts in intervention design, and public health from Europe and internationally, explored criteria for evaluating transferability of best practices, using the conceptual and process PIET-T (Population, Intervention, Environment, Transfer and Transferability). Held in six sessions in early November 2020, these focus groups laid the groundwork for further development of this promising model for assessing transferability, with implications for future best practice recommendations. The third activity TWIG members engaged in was liaison with the European Commission, specifically the Joint Research Centre and DG SANTE, to explore and try to increase interlinkages between national and EU best practice portals.
The TWIG’s recommendations to improve connections were presented to the EU Steering Group on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (SPGG) in late 2020. Finally, the group began preparation of a comparative analysis of participating national portals with the aim to publish final results in a scientific journal.
Thematic Working Groups (TWIGs) are open to all members and partners to bring together specialists on key subjects chosen by members so they can stay up-to-date, pool knowledge, and build common positions.
EuroHealthNet’s work was carefully monitored and evaluated by an external evaluator, selected through a competitive tender process to deliver our a 4-year external evaluation plan. The 2020 evaluation investigated: a) EuroHealthNet’s impact on the understanding of health inequalities at EU level; and b) its contribution to strengthening EU policy and funding initiatives related to issues of social equity and health promotion. It did so through interviews with key policy stakeholders and decision-makers at EU level, including the European Commission and Member State representations.
The evaluation broadly concluded that EuroHealthNet has been among the actors which have improved understanding of health and social inequalities – and of what works to reduce them. In addition, we can have confidence that EuroHealthNet has contributed to strengthening policy initiatives at EU level, where they are already underway, and to their implementation in practice.
EuroHealthNet’s office is based in Brussels and staffed by a skilled team of 13 employees working in a diverse and dynamic environment with highly experienced leadership by Director Caroline Costongs.
Caroline Costongs
Director
Alba Godfrey
Project Coordinator
David Hargitt
Management Officer
Alexandra Latham
Senior Communication Coordinator
Alison Maassen
Programme Manager
Clive Needle
Senior Policy Advisor
Lina Papartyte
Project Coordinator
Vania Putatti
Policy & Liaison Officer
Renaud Rollet
Administrator & Financial Officer
Dorota Sienkiewicz
Senior Policy Coordinator
Ingrid Stegeman
Programme Manager
Chantal Verdonschot
Communications Officer
Katharina Yacoub
Communications Assistant
Our work would not be possible without the continued commitment and support of Members and Associate Members, and the European Commission’s EaSI Programme 2018-2021. Thanks to you, we are delivering results that will create healthier, fairer futures.
At the General Council meeting in June 2020, Prof. Mirosław J. Wysocki (National Institute of Public Health of Poland), retired as a delegate and Executive Board member. He was thanked by all for his valuable contributions to EuroHealthNet and wished well for his future.
We are also immensely grateful for the hard work and commitment of our team in Brussels, without such skilled and enthusiastic colleagues we wouldn’t have been able to deliver on all of the activities of this Annual Report.
In the past year, we have said fond farewell to two valued staff members: Dr Maria Romeo and Süheyla Ugurtas and welcomed a new colleague to our communications team, Katharina Yacoub.
We have worked with several external suppliers over the last year and are very grateful for their support. Frédéric Demaude provides accountancy services and RSM carries out financial audits. Alka provides IT support. Kwitelle, Wim Vandersleyen, and ReBrand Studio provide graphic design and publishing services. JordacheWD redeveloped and maintains our online magazine, online financing guide, and new health inequalities portal. Behived media developed our videos. BusinessAndCode manages our CRM database. Stephen Barnett is our external evaluator.
Our work would not be possible without the continued commitment and support of Members and Associate Members, and the European Commission’s EaSI Programme 2018-2021. Thanks to you, we are delivering results that will create healthier, fairer futures.
Full membership is open to accountable public bodies with responsibilities and/or expertise in public health, health promotion, health inequalities, disease prevention, or other relevant fields. They are mostly national, regional or local institutes, authorities, and government departments.
To allow non-statutory bodies such as universities, non-governmental and civil society organisations, and other international networks to become part of EuroHealthNet, the Associate Membership category was developed. Associate Members can become part of one or more platforms.
Contact us
EuroHealthNet Office
Rue Royale 146
1000 Brussels – Belgium
Tel.: + 32-2-235 03 20
info@eurohealthnet.eu
www.eurohealthnet.eu
To find out about become a Member of EuroHealthNet, or about many of the other ways to become involved in our work, contact d.hargitt@eurohealthnet.eu.