Minutes of the General Assembly

EAP Winter Meeting – Saturday, 8 December, 2018

1. Welcome by Tom Stiris and call to order
2. The Agenda was accepted
3. Minutes from the Spring Meeting were approved

4. Report from the President, Tom Stiris (TS)

The president gave a summary of EAP activities where he touched upon the following:

• EAP/EPA – no activities.
• IPA – Stefano nominated as candidate.
• European Examinations. Details of the progress can be found in the minutes of EBP.
• “Politics” – EU- important points to continue working are the following:

1. Identify priority topics (core issues at EU level)
2. Identify EAP’s reliable experts, and create a task force (medicines for children; choosing wisely
3. List key resources (reports, surveys etc.)
4. Build contacts at EU level (create list)
5. Consolidate allies of EAP
   • A summary from the EAPS congress in Paris was given for both the scientific program and the social events. The success of the congress and the wide geographical participation was eluted. Furthermore, the thought of working for an annual EAPS was brought up.
   • Finally, everyone working hard for the EAP was thanked by the president who by this was finishing his presidency.

5. Report from the General Secretary, Adamos Hadjipanayis (AH)

• AH presented the statements published on behalf of EAP so far and then encouraged all participants to contribute in developing new statements. This is important for EAP in order to increase its visibility and credibility.
• He presented the new website of EAP which is fresh, modern and user friendly and invited the delegates to visit it. The total number of visitors the last year was rather small and he expressed the need to develop new content in order to attract more visitors.
• AH emphasized the involment of EAP in the activities of European Medicine Agency and he also announced that EMA will move to Amsterdam in 2019.
• Finally, AH announced that the upcoming Mastercourse and Congress of EAP will take place in Porto during 19-22 of September 2019.

6. Financial Report by the Treasurer Arunas Valiulis (AV)

The full financial report can be found on the link

Report by the Executive Director

Stefano del Torso (SdT)

SdT reviewed the activity of the team.

• He mentioned that the EAP now has a number of important links within Brussels and throughout Europe. The 18 months contract with Low Associates – a lobby group within Brussels, ends in December but the EC has agreed to continue it for an additional 12 months.
• The monthly Zoom meetings with LOW have continued with the participation of Robert Ross Russel (RRR), Ana Neves (AN) and Sian Copley (SC) of the Young EAP.
• ADVOCACY / COMMUNICATION The Twitter campaign promoted by LOW Staff with the collaboration of some EC members has continued to produce good results with EAP Tweet being retweeted also by EU Health Commissioner and other EU organizations. See statistics
• Early discussions with DG Sante took place to discuss the development of child-based measures of health across Europe: this need to be followed up in the coming months due to the change of the DG Sante Chair.
• LOW has been working with PARAGON and together has completed the revamping of the website.
• A new EAP flyer has been produced by LOW to be used by all members
• EPHA SdT  has taken part to the EPHA 2018 UNIVERSAL ACCESS AND AFFORDABLE MEDICINES FORUM. Over 120 participants: Stakeholders, Lobbyists’, Press, EU Commission, Permanent National Representatives to the EU. Several contacts with stakeholders have been taken during the meeting. Following the Forum SdT and RRR have met EPHA Secretary General to discuss the possibility to organize a Paediatric Focused session during the 2019 Trailblazer Forum.
• As a key stakeholder EAP has been invited to participate to the TRILLIUM II- MOCHA Stakeholder Consultation meeting organized in collaboration with WHO in Copenhagen, a cross-sectoral consultation on digital health policies to strengthen child immunization in Europe through health data standards. SdT presented EAP statements and EAPRASnet survey related to vaccinations and immunization confidence.
• The Trillium II Project funded by DG CONNECT under the Horizon 2020 programme, aims also to drive adoption of the International Patient Summary (IPS) considered as a window to person’s health information listing problems, medications, allergies, immunizations, and links to further information (cross-border care). SdT and Peter Altoriaj have offered EAP collaboration to develop a Paediatric IPS.
• Following this meeting additional contacts have been developed with Joint Action on Vaccination (JAV) Consortium as well as with other EU officers to involve EAP in the future  Coalition on Vaccination, launched on Dec 7 by EU Commissioner. 
• Other contacts are in place also with IPA International Pediatric Association leadership in order to have EAP recognized as European Regional Representative.

8. Ratification of the Elections for the Chairs of Primary and Secondary Council
• Peter Altoriaj (PA) from Hungary was elected as the chair of Primary Care council and
• Karoli Illy (KI  from The Netherlands were elected for Primary and Secondary care chairs.
• GA ratified both elections.

9. Elections for the Post of President
• AH addressed the GA with his mission statement and the election followed. He was elected as the new President of EAP.

10. Upcoming EAP’s Meetings
• AH announced that the 2019 Spring Meeting will take place in Vilnius between 17-18 May. The meeting will be in parallel to the congress of the Baltic countries and this will provide the opportunity to promote our society and its activities.

11. Reports by EBP, Permanent Councils, Working Groups, EAPRASnet and YEAP
• Since all sessions of the winter meeting were plenary no report was given by the above groups and all minutes can be found on the EAP website.

12. Any other issue
• The new Secretary General will be elected during the Spring Meeting. The call for candidatures will be sent to eligible candidates according to the Statute.