POLICY WATCH
Alzheimer Europe campaigns to reintroduce Operating Grants in the EU4Health programme Following the decision of the European Commission not to include Operating Grants for health NGOs in the EU4Health Annual Work Programme 2021, Alzheimer Europe has worked with other European health NGOs to convince Health Commissioner Kyriakides to reverse the decision. On 18 June 2021, the European Commission published its annual Work Programme 2021 for the landmark EU4Health programme. Disappointingly, despite provision being made within the EU4Health regulation (which itself was the result of negotiation between the European Parliament and Council), there was no inclusion of Operating Grants for Health NGOs within the programme. Whilst Action Grant funding was available for NGOs, the projects they outlined were narrow in scope and severely restrictive, with the majority focused on cancer-related projects. As such, Alzheimer Europe and many other organisations were unable to apply for funding through this instrument. Engagement with Commission and support from MEPs
Furthermore, our organisations provided evidence about how this withdrawal of this funding mechanism would be detrimental to the work of our organisations, creating longterm uncertainty, as well as undermining our operational independence. This in turn would impact on our ability to contribute to health policy at an EU-level, despite the EU in recent years often approaching our organisations for support and contributions towards its healthrelated policy work. In addition to this work, our organisations engaged with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), asking for their support for our cause and sending a message to the Commission underlining the value they saw in our work. 56 MEPs signed an open letter at the beginning of June 2021, recognising the importance of Health NGOs in the EU policy
process, expressing disappointment at the decision to exclude Operating Grants in the Work Programme 2021 (based on a leaked draft) and calling for the Commissioner to reinstate the funding mechanism. This letter was sent from the office of Frédérique Ries, and included the signatures of a number of European Alzheimer’s Alliance (EAA) members. The open letter can be found at: https:// www.eu-patient.eu/globalassets/open-letter_eu4health-programme-and-operatinggrants-for-csos_updated-signatories-1.pdf Despite these actions and an additional meeting with Commission officials prior following the publication of the Work Programme 2021, the Commission made no commitment to reintroduce Operating Grants and failed to acknowledge the concerns expressed about the detrimental impact this would have on Health NGOs. Social media campaign As a result of this lack of progress, across the latter half of July 2021, Alzheimer Europe, along with a number of other Health NGOs began a more public-facing campaign to raise the profile of the matter, bringing greater attention to the issue. A key element of the campaign was focused on social media and in particular Twitter. Alzheimer Europe led on the development
In the months leading up to the publication of the Work Programme 2021, Alzheimer Europe worked closely with the European Patients’ Forum (EPF), the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) and EURORDIS, as well as other European Health NGOs organisations, meeting with officials from DG SANTE and the newly established Health and Digital Executive (HaDEA), outlining our concerns about public statements from Commission officials failing to commit to Operating Grants. In particular, concerns were expressed about the lack of prior consultation and meaningful involvement of Health NGOs, especially those currently in receipt of an Operating Grant under the previous Health Programme 2014–2020.
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