Our Top News - Die Johanniter

JOIN Newsletter – February/March 2008 – 9 Pages
Our Top News
In this edition
Staff member evacuated from Chad
A staff member of the German St John had to be
evacuated from Chad in early February, due to
the hostilities between rebel and government
troops. Page 2
Consultation on Europe’s Social Reality
The European Commission launched a Consultation on Europe’s Social Reality. A number of
Civil Society organisations participated. The
Consultation aimed to generate debate and
sought views on current social trends. Page 5
Johanniter International has joined forces with a number of NGOs in
signing a position paper to make 2011 the European Year of Volunteering. The European Volunteer Centre (CEV) presented the paper in the
European Parliament in February.
The undersigning organisations believe that having a European Year
attributed to volunteering would raise awareness of its importance to
the European Union in economic as well as in social terms. The Union
is still lacking a comprehensive approach that promotes, recognises,
facilitates and supports volunteering. The Paper therefore calls for a
volunteering infrastructure at local, regional, national and European
level. A European Year could also spread information on the possibilities of volunteering, and reduce the barriers that people who want to
volunteer are facing. Please click here for more information.
Moustache-Campaign raised nearly € 1 million
Commission Communication on
Civil Protection
The European Commission has published a
Communication on reinforcing the Union’s disaster response capacity in early March. It calls for
more coordination, coherence and transparency
in EU civil protection. Page 7
Content
JOIN News
Members News
St John Worldwide
Health and Social Affairs in Europe
Humanitarian and Development Aid
Volunteering
Civil Protection
Other EU Policy News
Past Events
Upcoming Events
EU Funding Opportunities
Publications
Towards a European Year of Volunteering
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Editor:
Johanniter International (JOIN) asbl
Rue Joseph II 166 ; B-1000 Brussels, Belgium.
Web: www.johanniter.org
Released bimonthly. Edited by:
Martin Schneider (Managing Director),
Astrid Eckstein, Henrike Hohmeister
For more information, notes etc.:
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +32-2-282.10.45, Fax: +32-2-282.10.44
The Swedish St John in 2007 had initiated a fundraising campaign for
research and information about prostate cancer. To raise public
awareness, it organised a nationwide moustache competition. The
Swedish King Carl XIV Gustaf adopted the cause and thus the campaign from the very start had prominent backing as well as great fundraising results. The actual contest was launched on 14th November.
Participants paid €50 for three competitions: most money raised, most
sponsors engaged and the most beautiful moustache. Participants,
sponsors and the public followed the progress of the contest on the
campaign website. A great amount of money was received from individual donors. The campaign was well-publicised and thus the Swedish
St John is now much better known in the general public and is on its
way to becoming the number one charity of the Swedish business
world.
The campaign officially ended with a dinner in the presence of the
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Swedish King and Queen on Valentine’s Day, 14 February, where
prize ceremonies, entertainment and an auction were on the programme. All in all, the Swedish St John collected with the Moustache
Campaign nearly € 1 million for the prostate cancer research.
Carer support programme saves a life
Stephanie King, a mother and carer from Dorset saved her disabled
son’s life after receiving vital training from the St John Ambulance Carer support programme.
Stephanie knew what to do when Matthew started choking after finishing his dinner. She placed him on his knees and started doing five back
slaps and five abdominal thrusts. When Matthew stopped breathing,
she started resuscitation, and only when she became exhausted did
Stephanie place him in the recovery position and ran to her next door
neighbours who called an ambulance. Stephanie said: 'If I had not
attended the St John Ambulance Carers support programme I would
not have known what to do. St John Ambulance gave me the knowledge and confidence to help save my son's life’.
The St John Carers support programme teaches emergency and basic
first aid skills based around accidents that are likely to occur in the
home, along with safe handling and information about how to keep
both the carer and the person they care for well.
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ning to deliver long-term help in order to better prepare
the population for future disasters.
First Aid and Prevention courses are to be provided in
the region. Additional funding will be used to train ten
members of BRAC (the largest Bangladeshi NGO),
who will then share their knowledge with local teachers
and women; also in remote communities.
JOIN Members News
St John Eye Hospital
St John and Red Crescent together
against the effects of diabetes
German St John stresses its public
utility
The St John Eye Hospital intends to eliminate preventable blindness in the Middle East. Diabetic retinopathy
is one of the major causes of blindness in adults. Over
14% of the Palestinian population are affected by diabetes, a disease that increases the risk of blindness by
25 times. Only by early detection can all related blindness be prevented. As the Palestinian health sector
suffers from a perpetual lack of funding and is in shatters because of the ongoing crisis, the new joint programme of the St John Eye Hospital and the Palestinian Red Crescent is an important contribution to combating the effects of Diabetes.
Responding to the movement restrictions enforced on
their patients, the St John Eye Hospital opened a third
satellite clinic in Anabta in May 2007. It covers a region
inhabited by close to a million people in the isolated
North of the West Bank. This year, it looks to expand
and intensify its screening programmes and treatment
of Diabetic patients. The Red Crescent Society operates eight primary care centres in the North of the West
Bank, five of which are for diabetics. The joint programme will provide an efficient route of referrals for
diabetic patients in need of ophthalmic treatment.
The German St John organisation has reacted strongly
to a recent verdict by the German Federal Finance
Court. According to the court’s opinion of early February, ambulance and patient transport services did not
serve the public good, as charity organisations only
provided medical services to make money.
Objecting this position, St John emphasises that its
Statutes underline the mission of relieving the distress
and suffering of persons. The charitable character of
the German St John’s activities is thus clearly defined.
The court verdict contradicts the organisation’s statutory mission statement and the commitment of its ca
22,000 volunteers.
Joannici Dzieło Pomocy
St John wins prize in competition
„Safe Streets 2007“
The regional association Warminsko-Mazurski of the
Polish St John association was awarded a prize in the
category “Initial care/Ambulance sector” in the
“ORLEN-Safe Streets” competition in Warsaw, receiving around €7100 for its achievements. St John had
been hosting events to spread knowledge and expertise on initial care and has trained some 600 people.
Within the “Safe Olsztyn” Project it has educated 150
participants and held a summer workshop on how to
teach the basics of initial care to young people. A new
series of events that trains St John volunteers for providing first aid in schools began last summer.
Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V.
Evacuation of a colleague from Chad
The German St John staff member Roger Meyer had to
be evacuated from Chad in early February, due to the
hostilities between rebel and government troops. He
first travelled to Libreville (Gabon) before he was flown
out to Berlin on 4th February. Heavy equipment and
helicopters were used in the fighting after rebel troops
had occupied the capital. Meyer was in N’Djamena for
a planned six-week assignment. The German St John
still managed to deliver relief supplies to refugees in
need. Until the situation in Chad stabilises, the St John
Office will remain vacant.
Johanniter Hulpverlening
MADD made a difference
More than 43,000 people participated in the Make a
Difference Day (MADD) in November 2007 in the
Netherlands. MADD puts voluntary commitment into
the spotlight and has become an important tool to enhance the image of voluntary work and promote social
commitment. The Dutch St John organisation actively
took part in this event – it provided volunteers and
organised several programmes where “trial” volunteers
could get a feel of the services just for the day or for
longer.
First-aid and prevention training in
Bangladesh
Bangladesh regularly suffers from floods caused by
monsoon rains, high tides and cyclones. Only recently,
in summer 2007, 600 people lost their lives due to
heavy floods, and only four months later cyclone Sidr
destroyed about 360,000 houses and killed more than
3,000 people. The German St John reacted with immediate emergency measures, but is now also plan-
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to Kenyan governance. While this deal will hopefully
end violence, few people in the camps believe that they
can return to their homes. Hatred and mistrust are too
deeply entrenched for people to go back to ethnically
diverse places, says Ewa Mwai, coordinator of St John
Kenya. More than 270,000 people remain in Kenyan
camps, and 12,000 are estimated to be in Uganda. The
rain season has begun, resulting in deteriorating conditions in the camps. Medical treatment needs to be
maintained over at least the next few weeks.
Johannita Segitö Szolgálat
More St John youth work in Budapest
The Hungarian St John organisation is offering more
and more interesting youth activities in the capital.
Since last autumn there has been a special first aid
course for young people. Another youth group has
been caring for children in a "problem school", who
need particular support and supervision due to their
difficult family situations. The St John youngsters have
organised excursions and a Santa-Claus gift giving for
these kids. There is a regular exchange with the school
psychologist. A third St John youth team organises the
storage and distribution of clothes and other donations
in kind that the organisation receives.
The Hungarian St John organisation is also running
youth groups in the towns of Szeged, Szombathely and
Oradea.
Health and Social Affairs
in Europe
European eHealth policy – ambitious
plans and critics
eHealth means the application of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) across all functions
affecting the health sector – from doctors to patients,
from hospital managers to social security administrators.
In a report published in late December 2007, the European Commission concluded that the eHealth sector
had the potential to be a lead market and the prospective return of investment would be relatively high. Lead
markets are high-growth potential markets for research
and innovation-rich goods and services. The Commission believes that an eHealth lead market would increase economic benefits and improve the quality
of health services.
However, preliminary findings of an EU-backed
study that assessed the financing needs for eHealth
are revealing an over-emphasis on ICT to the detriment
of organisational change and real benefits for the
health systems. According to this study, which will be
published in September 2008, organisational change
can be achieved by freeing up medical staff's time for
eHealth purposes and training, as well as redesigning current working and clinical practices. An
effective engagement of doctors and nurses is needed
and the whole eHealth user chain has to be convinced
of the benefits of eHealth.
According to Dr. Daniel Mart from the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME), doctors feel they
have been excluded from the EU eHealth policy. They
criticize that the European eHealth industry is too powerful and the competitiveness of the sector has taken
priority over proven benefits to patients and health
systems.
St John Worldwide
St John Ambulance Sri Lanka takes
over post-Tsunami projects
Last December, the German St John organisation
closed down its office in Colombo (Sri Lanka), having
been there for three years in the aftermath of the Tsunami. Its projects (i.e. first aid training and the building
of five training centres) will now be overseen by its
partner, St John Ambulance Sri Lanka. After providing
immediate emergency relief aid following the tsunami,
the German organisation had carried out projects such
as helping to build houses for 90 families, holding first
aid courses and staging a campaign against the sexual
exploitation of children. Between December 2004 and
December 2007, €3.8 million were invested in projects
in Sri Lanka.
St John Ambulance Kenya helps victims
More than 1000 Kenyans have died and around
300,000 Kenyans were internally displaced due to the
outbreak of violence after the allegedly rigged elections
in Kenya on 27th December 2007.
St John Ambulance Kenya has been treating victims
since the beginning of the crisis. 150 members contributed to initial care and transportation to hospitals when
the hostilities first broke out. As the conflict persisted,
HIV medication, sanitary products and blankets were
given out to the victims. The German Foreign Office
gave €100,000 to the German St John organisation to
support its relief activities in Kenya. St John Ambulance Kenya has more than 10,000 members trained in
first aid, and is one of the largest relief organisations in
the country.
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On 28 February, President Kibaki and opponent Odinga reached a power-sharing deal. Odinga will now
become Kenya’s Prime Minister, a position that is new
Health services directive again postponed
The long-awaited EU health services directive, which
was supposed to codify the circumstances under which
EU patients can legitimately be covered for treatment
received in other Member States, has again been
postponed. Health systems are primarily the responsibility of the Member States, but in some cases healthcare may be better provided in another Member State,
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for example, for rare conditions or specialised treatment.
To provide clarity and legal certainty on the issue for
the benefit of the patients, the Commission has decided to establish an EU framework to ensure crossborder access to health care services. But several
Commissioners’ cabinets have reservations about the
proposal, believing that in particular the reimbursement
system and its consequences need more reflection.
Some Commissioners fear that the costs for the national health systems will become too high, others point
out that a discussion about the proposal for the directive within the European institutions could have a negative impact on the ratification process of the Lisbon
Treaty, as it was the case with the Services Directive.
According to Commission sources, a proposal for the
health directive will not be published until the beginning
of June, as Commissioner Kyprianou, who was responsible for Health issues, has left his office prematurely.
EU and private sector to inject €1 billion into ICT products and care at
home
On 24th January, the European Parliament's Industry
Committee voted on the €1 billion EU Programme
'Ambient Assisted Living' (AAL). This is a cooperation
programme between governments and industry aiming
to enhance the quality of life of the elderly through the
development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The programme is intended to address
the needs of the ageing population, reduce innovation
barriers of forthcoming promising markets, but also
lower future social security costs.
AAL aims - by the use of ICT such as consumer electronics, smart homes, telematic services and medical
equipment – to extend the time older people can live in
their home environment. It should help to increase their
autonomy and assist them in carrying out activities of
daily living.
€1 billion has been made available for the 2008-2013
period. €300 million is contributed by industry, €400
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million will be available from the 7 Framework Programme for Research and Development and €150
million from the European Commission. The EU countries taking part will contribute €150 million.
Better protection from occupational
diseases and workplace accidents
The European Parliament has regretted that the European Commission was not setting goals for the reduction of occupational diseases.
In 2006, about 167,000 people died from a work related accident or disease in the EU, estimates the
International Labour Organisation (ILO), while according to the European Commission another 300,000
workers suffer permanent disability every year.
In its new five-year strategy for Safety and Health at
work (2007-2012), the Commission set the ambitious
target of reducing workplace accidents across the EU
by 25%. But also for the reduction of occupational
diseases - such as occupational cancer - targets need
to be set, says the Parliament. MEPs therefore suggest
transforming the EU recommendation on occupational
diseases into a minimum directive. Member States
should draw up national action plans on phasing out
asbestos, which should include obligations to map
asbestos in buildings and to provide for a safe removal.
New and emerging risks, such as psychosocial risks
have to be identified and monitored. Amendments were
needed to the directive on the exposure to biological
agents at work, in order to protect healthcare workers
from blood borne diseases due to needle stick injuries.
MEPs are also concerned about the increasing occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and have
therefore asked the Commission to consider proposing
a directive that covers all risks concerning work-related
MSD. Across the EU, 25% of workers complain of
backache and 23% report muscular pains. The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EUOSHA) therefore promotes an integrated approach to
tackling MSDs, which also helps employees affected
by them to continue working. At the closing event of
the ‘Lighten the Load’ campaign, nine organisations
were recently honoured with a European Good Practice Award for helping to prevent musculoskeletal disorders.
The European Social Model of the future
On the initiative of José Silva Peneda, a Spanish
member of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliath
ment, a conference on 14 February in Brussels debated the future of the European Social Model.
In his opening speech, Peneda, co-rapporteur of the
European Parliament report on the future European
Social Model presented the four principal models of
social policy in the European Union: The Nordic Model,
the Anglo-Saxon, the Continental and the Southern
European Model. He pointed out that "different social
models all have a solid set of common features and
values. They simply use different instruments to reach
the same objectives".
All speakers considered globalisation and demographic
evolution as the two big challenges for the European
Social Model. They stressed that the Social Model
could not stay unchanged, but had to adapt to the
changing economic and social reality that are caused
by the opening of the Internal Market, the mobility of
the workforce and negative population growth.
The European Commissioner for Employment, Social
Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Špidla, explained the
concept of the European Social Model: It should produce new wealth, with the will to redistribute a part of
that wealth, and protect the environment and sustainable development.
Professor Detlev Albers (Bremen University), Professor
Stephen Haseler (London Metropolitan University) and
Professor Marco Ricceri (EURISPES, Rome), the coordinators of a European Research Group on the
European Social Model, presented a Platform on the
Reform of the European social model. They pointed out
that Europe should not just accept the conditions created by the neo-liberal market but actively take part in
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the globalisation process and that the European Social
Model should be seen and used as a competitive advantage.
European Commission prepared a background document. Comments on the document as well as on the
Communication on "Opportunities, access and solidarity: towards a new social vision for 21st century
Europe" adopted by the Commission on 20th November 2007 had to be sent in by 15th February 2008.
Public authorities from the Member States, NGOs and
other organizations, such as interest groups, religious
groups or EU organizations, as well as European Parliamentarians and other EU Citizens took part in the
consultation. Their contributions are now accessible
through the Citizens' Agenda website.
Debate on social services of general
interest
At a conference in Brussels on 28th January, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the
Committee of Regions (CoR), together with the Collectif SSIG, an alliance of 15 French associations of social
service providers, presented a joint report on the state
of affairs regarding social services of general interest
(SSGI) in the light of the Lisbon Reform Treaty.
The conference and the report are part of a debate
between the European Commission and social partners. At the centre of the debate stands the protocol on
the services of general interest (SGI), which is annexed
to the Reform Treaty. In the view of the Commission,
this protocol is an adequate and sufficient response to
the requirements of the SSGI, an opinion that is not
shared by the EESC and the CoR. Their representatives demand specific legislation on social services and
criticize the attitude of the Commission.
Criticism has also been voiced about the hotline set up
by the Commission to answer open questions from the
Member States. A hotline could not clarify the legal
situation and its staff could hardly answer all the questions from the Member States in the process of transposing the Service Directive that was adopted in late
2006.
After different social services had been excluded from
the Services Directive, the Commission also decided,
in December 2007, to scale down its ambitions for
public service regulation and refrain from publishing a
directive on services of general interest. In the eyes of
experts this means that the Member States will be able
to choose whether or not to include these services
when they transpose the legislation. The move of the
Commission was met with contempt by trade unions,
public employers, NGOs and the Socialist Group in the
European Parliament.
The report presented at the conference calls for a relaunch of a European strategy for social services of
general interest. All those taking part in the discussion
called on the French Presidency to intervene in the
debate and to relaunch the political process in the
second half of 2008. Another conference on the subject
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is to take place in Paris on 28 and 29 October.
Countries scored on child safety performance
More than 6,700 child and adolescent deaths could be
avoided each year, if every Member State achieved the
level of Sweden, the safest country for children in the
EU, according to a study by the European Child Safety
Alliance, EuroSafe. The review aimed to assess where
European countries are in terms of adoption, implementation and enforcement of policies that support
child safety. For the first time, 18 countries have been
scored on how much they do to reduce fatal accidents
among children. The countries scoring highest were
the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, and Sweden.
Greece and Portugal reached the lowest score.
The policies assessed in the performance grading have
all been shown to prevent child deaths if adopted,
implemented and enforced. These policies relate to
road traffic accidents, drowning, falls, poisoning, burns
and choking. Effective measures to prevent such accidents are i.e. child seats in cars, helmets for cyclists,
fencing for private swimming pools or speed limits in
residential areas. Countries were also scored on their
leadership, infrastructure and capacity in child safety.
For example, countries where only one national department coordinates child safety activities across
sectors are more likely to be effective in reducing child
injury. The results of the study can be viewed at the
Eurosafe website. A second phase of the review of 12
more countries has started in January 2008.
Humanitarian and
Development Aid
Europe’s Social Reality: A stocktaking
European Commission earmarks € 370
million in aid to humanitarian hotspots
Social reality in Europe is changing dramatically: the
nature of work, modern family life, demographic trends,
the position of women in society, social mobility and
the incidence of poverty and inequality. Societies are
becoming increasingly multicultural; values are changing and new challenges are rising. Therefore, the
European Commission had organised a public consultation to seek a wide range of views on today’s European social reality.
The consultation aimed to generate debate and sought
views on current social trends. To animate the discussion, the Bureau of European Policy Advisers of the
The European Commission has earmarked €369.6
million in humanitarian aid to meet the basic needs of
the most vulnerable victims of humanitarian crises
around the globe. A series of humanitarian aid decisions has been launched to provide food assistance
(€160 million) and other humanitarian aid. €8 million is
being provided for a dedicated humanitarian air transport service (ECHO Flight). The EU Member States
have already approved the Commission proposals for
these aid plans. According to Louis Michel, Commissioner responsible for Humanitarian and Development
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erally approved, several speakers asked that the exact
task division between home based care (HBC) programmes and Food Aid should be clarified. Dr. Mukesh
Kapila, special representative of the UN-Secretary
General for HIV/AIDS, emphasized his view that gender equality should be mandatory for any Humanitarian
Aid agency wanting to work with EU funds, and that the
EU should only support humanitarian actors that work
according to an active code of conduct. UNAIDS representative Karl Lorenz Dehne confirmed that the draft
ECHO guidelines and the Inter-Agency Standing
Committee Guidelines (IASC) on HIV/AIDS are generally similar.
Aid, “almost half of the humanitarian budget for 2008
[is] committed to help the victims of longer term crises.
This means we can get help to where it is needed
without delay."
Commission launches PEGASE to
support the Palestinian people
In order to follow up the TIM mechanism, the European
Commission recently launched PEGASE as a new
instrument to channel EU and international assistance
to the Palestinian people. PEGASE is planned run for
the next three years. Based on the Reform and Development Plan of the Palestinian Authority, it will channel
assistance to four key areas: governance, social development, economic and private sector development,
and public infrastructure.
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for
External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, has invited all Member States to use this new
mechanism to channel their contributions, too.
PEGASE is also open to non-EU donors. According to
the Commissioner, “PEGASE will provide greater stability and predictability to our action as the largest donors to the Palestinians". PEGASE will be implemented
in partnership with the Palestinian authorities. It covers
EU assistance to the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem and will be coordinated locally with EU Member
States and other international partners.
“A sustainable future in our hands” –
An EU guide
The EU recently published a guide about its strategy
on sustainable development. The topics covered reach
from environment to health protection. The guide gives
suggestions for citizens about what they can do to help
achieve the goals of the strategy. It identifies seven key
challenges, namely climate change and clean energy,
sustainable transport, sustainable consumption and
production, conservation and management of natural
resources, public health, social inclusion, demography
and migration, and global poverty. According to the
strategy, Europe’s future depends on whether it
achieves the triple objectives of wealth creation, social
cohesion and environmental protection. The guide can
be downloaded here.
Hearing on EU Humanitarian Aid after
the Consensus
Volunteering
On 29th January, the European Parliament Committee
on Development hosted a public hearing on the future
of humanitarian aid, following the signing of the ‘European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid’, in December
2007. Members of Parliament and guest speakers
looked at the relations between military forces and
humanitarian workers. Angelo Gnaedinger, Director
General of the International Committee of the Red
Cross argued that humanitarian workers risked loosing
their neutrality if they cooperated with the military.
However, due to the military’s logistical capacities,
needed in situations where quick responses are vital,
humanitarian workers may be forced to rely on the
military. John Holmes, the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief suggested that
pragmatics would have to govern cooperation between
the military and humanitarian workers.
New Volunteering Website
The European Volunteer Centre (CEV) has launched
its new website (www.cev.be). It contains information
on its activities, on relevant EU policies and on volunteer related issues in general.
European Parliament Committee
adopts Volunteering Report
The Regional Development Committee of the European Parliament adopted a report on the importance of
volunteering on 27th February. The document had been
written by MEP Marian Harkin (Ireland).
The report promotes volunteering from a regional perspective. It states that 100 million EU citizens volunteer, and every €1 spent on supporting them generates
a return of between €3 and €8. Volunteering thus contributes to regional and national economies and should
be recognised as a valuable effort to creating social
capital. Volunteering also presents a lifelong learning
opportunity. The report calls for the Commission,
Member States and regional and local authorities to
promote volunteering through Community policies and
to increase EU funds for voluntary action. Volunteers
already help to implement projects under EU-funded
initiatives such as the LEADER (rural development)
ECHO Roundtable on HIV/AIDS funding guidelines
st
On 21 February, the European Commission Directorate for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) hosted a roundtable
on its future HIV/AIDS funding guidelines. These guidelines should create clarity and consistency for the partners such as NGOs. The participants discussed
whether emergency funding should be used for the
provision of antiretroviral drugs. They also debated
whether HIV-affected households should be targeted
with emergency food assistance. While this was gen-
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programme, INTERREG (linking European regions)
and the Northern Ireland PEACE Programme. The
Commission is asked to develop a system across all
funds, where the contribution of volunteering to the cofinancing of EU-funded projects is recognised. The new
report also invites the Commission to integrate volunteer-friendliness in all areas of policy and legislation.
The EU Member States are asked to create incentives
for the business sector to get involved in volunteer
funding, as part of corporate social responsibility
strategies.
Marian Harkin suggests that the visa policy that is
applied to volunteers coming from EU neighbouring
countries should be changed and the access to recognised EU volunteering activities be facilitated. The
media as well as local and regional stakeholders are
encouraged to make volunteering better known and
inform the citizens about opportunities to volunteer.
The document finally emphasizes that volunteering and
voluntary activities are not to replace paid work.
forest fires, preparing the public, especially vulnerable
groups, for natural disasters, helping municipalities
prepare for climate change and resulting floods, cooperation between European volunteer organisations
during emergencies, training professional and volunteer fire-fighters, local civil protection services and
volunteer groups for common emergencies, and disseminating the results of previous EU civil protection
activities to improve community resilience. The projects
are due to be completed by the end of 2009.
Reinforcing the EU disaster
response capacity
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On 5 March, the European Commission published a
Communication on reinforcing the Union’s disaster
response capacity. The Commission suggests combining some of the existing disaster response instruments,
and a stronger coordination between them to improve
their effectiveness. The document says that the EU
needed to work on a common approach to disasters
inside and outside its territory. While it had taken first
steps in the right direction, namely the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid and a greater involvement
of EU delegations in concerned regions, more coherence, effectiveness and visibility were still needed.
The Communication also suggests two concrete
measures to reinforce the EU disaster response capacity: 1) Transforming the present Monitoring and Information Centre into a genuine operational centre, 2)
Improving the operational capacities in cooperation
with the Member States.
Furthermore, the EU civil protection capacities should
reinforce humanitarian aid action by filling existing
delivery gaps. Other proposals are to create a European Disaster Response Training Network, improve
disaster preparedness in- and outside the EU, work on
early warning measures, and better use of the 112
emergency call number. In order to reach its goals, the
Commission has drafted a concrete Action Plan with a
first deadline at the end of 2008.
Civil Protection
Launch of the European Parliament
Platform for Civil Protection
The European Parliament has launched a Platform for
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Civil Protection on 13 February. The initiators, Members of Parliament Vittorio Prodi (Italy), Paulo Casaca
(Portugal), and Dimitrios Papadimoulis (Greece) called
on Parliament to get involved in the debate on civil
protection, which, until now, has primarily taken place
within the Commission and in the Member States. The
Parliamentarians intend to build up in-house resources
allowing them to better inform their colleagues. They
also see the need for better communication channels
for emergency service providers, civil protection and
disaster preparedness agencies, as well as industry to
express their concerns towards Parliament. Three
annual events are planned, during which interested
parties can exchange information and opinions.
European Emergency Number 112 –
Survey results
Commission awards funding to new
exercises and projects
According to a survey requested by the European
Commission and published in February, the European
Emergency Number 112 is now available in all Member
States except Bulgaria. At the same time, only few
citizens know of its existence. 95% of the people interviewed agreed on the usefulness of having a European
emergency number. However, two out of three were
not adequately informed about the initiative. 71% said
that they had not received any information on the EUwide number in the past 12 months, yet some were
aware of it as a national emergency number. The number of people informed that 112 can be dialled anywhere in the EU differed a great amount from i.e. 4% in
Greece, to 56% in Poland. From the ones that had
called 112, only a minority experienced difficulties, and
in 81% of the cases an emergency unit arrived on the
spot.
The European Commission has awarded grants worth
€4.7 million to projects and large-scale pan-European
simulation exercises proposed under the recently
adopted Civil Protection Financial Instrument.
The Civil Protection exercises (led by organisations
from France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the United
Kingdom and Sweden) will feature a variety of scenarios including earthquake and flooding simulations.
They are expected to promote a common understanding of co-operation in civil protection assistance interventions and help accelerate response in major emergencies. They also test response capabilities and provide an opportunity for all actors involved to enhance
their operational co-operation. The exercises will take
place over 2008-2009.
The projects (led by organisations from Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Belgium), cover fighting
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highlighted the "valuable role" played by the NGOs in
bringing previously unnoticed issues to the Bank’s
attention, and urged the institution to "engage constructively with NGOs" in the future.
Greenpeace accused the European Commission of
impropriety, claiming that it had adopted policy proposals originating from the Chemical industry, in relation to
the REACH regulation (an EU regulatory framework for
Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction
of Chemicals). Mr Diamandouros did not confirm the
Greenpeace allegations, but underlined that the case
highlighted the "importance of transparency in relation
to lobbying activities during EU legislative procedures".
NGOs have already made around one thousand complaints to the Ombudsman over the last decade. These
complaints of alleged maladministration by the EU
institutions mainly concern environmental projects, late
payment for contracts granted by the EU, and a perceived lack on transparency in the institutions.
Other EU Policy News
Severe gap between Europe’s poorest
and richest
People living in central London are on average three
times wealthier than elsewhere in the EU. Their average gross domestic product (GDP) per head is at
303% (at around €67,798) of the EU average
(€22,400). London is followed in the ranking by Luxembourg, Brussels, Hamburg, Vienna and Ile-deFrance. These results emerged from a Eurostat study
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published on 12 February. At the other end of the
wealth spectrum, people in north-east Romania have
GDP per head levels of 24% of the EU average, and in
Bulgaria’s north-west region the GDP per head is
around 27%.
The top ten of the EU's poorest regions is split equally
between five Bulgarian and five Romanian regions.
Along with the wide differences among Member States,
the study also confirms large variations among the
regions within the different EU countries. The GDPs of
people living in Italy's northern regions of Lombardy or
Bolzano are twice as high as in the southern region of
Campania. The Eurostat data are based on 2005 figures of GDP per inhabitant, which have been adjusted
to take into account the differences in national price
levels.
The European Union’s cohesion policy exists to narrow
these disparities across the EU. In a 2007 report on the
impact of the cohesion policy for the period 2000 to
2006, the European Commission had shown that the
disparities in income and employment across the EU
have been reduced over the past decade owing to
regional EU subsidy programmes. Between 2004 and
2006 EU regional assistance helped, for example, to
raise the GDP by 2.8% in Greece and 2.0% in Portugal. Estimates suggest that between 2007 and 2013
the cohesion policy could bring about an increase of
8.5 % in the GDP of Lithuania, Latvia and the Czech
Republic, 7.5% in Romania, 6.0% in Bulgaria and Slovakia, and 5.5% in Poland (in comparison with the
situation without the impact of the cohesion policy).
Nevertheless, there are still important deficits to make
up between the least well-off and the rest, and a longterm effort will be necessary.
Past Events
Medical Cooperation in the Holy Land
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On 10 January, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) organised a Brussels event to
support the “A Heart for Peace” initiative between Israelis and Palestinians. The project brings together
doctors from Israel and Palestine to jointly help Palestinian children with serious heart conditions. The president of the association Dr. Muriel Haim emphasised
the role of the Israeli Hadassah hospital. She explained
that a number of Palestinian children suffered from
cardiac problems due to intermarriages and that the
project gave them access to specialist health facilities.
“A Heart for Peace” has saved the lives of 102 Palestinian children so far. Israeli professor Azaria Rein and
Palestinian doctor Salim Ibrahim described the problems they face due to the conflict in the region. The
Members of the European Parliament that attended the
event said that they were hoping for similar bottom-up
projects to spread and contribute to peace in the region.
Upcoming Events
European Ombudsman welcomes
NGO scrutiny of EU institutions
German St John Pentecost Camp
Two Polish environmental NGOs and Greenpeace had
turned to the European Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros last year in order to file complaints against
two different EU Institutions. The Ombudsman now
stressed that he relied on such complaints to help him
uncover possible instances of maladministration. He
also argued, that “the Institutions in turn, profit from the
active involvement of NGOs to help them rectify problems in the system”.
The complaints of the Polish NGOs targeted the European Investment Bank, claiming that the Bank had
failed to provide them with access to documents they
required. In his decision on the case, the Ombudsman
The German St John youth organisation invites other
St John youth groups to come to Grömitz at the Baltic
Sea shore from 9th to 12th May. The theme of this
year’s Pentecost camp is “summer, sun, beach and
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more”. Group registrations are welcome until 7 April.
The fee per participant is €45, which includes camping
fees and full board. Youth leaders planning to attend
are invited to contribute to the programme. Camp beds
and tents are there, as well as dishes and cutlery. If
you’re up for companionship, fun, strategy 2010, exchange, international contacts, an internet prize and St
John Youth Feeling, register now! For the official invitation, please contact: [email protected].
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Youth Leader Training in Poland
Lifelong Learning Info-Days
During a Johanniter International Youth Leader Meeting in Wales in February, the participants agreed to
organise a European Youth Leader Training in August
in Poland. The trainers will be from Wales, England,
and Germany. The event will be hosted by the Polish
St John organisation.
This first ever joint Youth Leader Training on a European scale will be targeted at allowing youth leaders to
run international projects and events. It should also
foster international learning, give possibilities for exchange and bring different European organisations
together.
The youth organisations in Johanniter International are
also planning a so-called “JOIN Aid Camp“ for young
volunteers that will help disadvantaged youngsters in a
specific country. The first edition is to take place next
September in Hungary.
The European Commission hosted Information Days
on Lifelong Learning in January. Potential applicants
were asked to pay attention to details when applying,
as these are often the reason for rejection. Staff of the
European Commission and its Executive Agency for
Education, Audiovisual and Culture, presented the
general calls for proposals 2008 and the submission
and selection procedures. The instructive Power-Point
presentations on Grundtvig (adult education) and
Leonardo (vocational education and training) are
online. The Commission webpage on the Lifelong
Learning Programme can be found here.
Health Programme 2008 - 2013 – Calls
for proposals
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On 29 February, a big new call for applications was
launched within the framework of the Second Programme of Community action in the field of Health
(2008-2013).
This
call
invites
applicants
to
submit:
(1) Project proposals (cofinancing of projects intending
to achieve a Programme objective),
(2) Conference proposals (cofinancing of conferences
intended to achieve a Programme objective),
(3) Proposals for the award of a financial contribution to
the functioning of non-governmental bodies and specialised networks (operating grants),
(4) Proposals for joint actions that are organised by EU
Member States and the other participating countries.
The deadline for submissions is 23rd May 2008.
More information is available on the website of the
Public Health Executive Agency.
Churches and Socially Responsible
Investment - Conference
The Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the EvangelicalLutheran Church of Finland and Oikocredit are jointly
organizing a Conference: “Investing in Your Mission:
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Churches and Socially Responsible Investment” on 6
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and 7 May 2008 in Brussels. Decision makers of
European churches as well as Church members and
church-related organisations are invited to share insight, information and best practices concerning Social
Responsible Investment (SRI). The objectives of the
conference are to link faith with investing money, identify needs of financial leadership in churches to implement SRI, facilitate the exchange between financial
and spiritual leadership on a European level and share
promising initiatives.
For more information and to register, please contact
[email protected].
Note: Details of these and additional funding opportunities are included in a monthly newsletter,
which the JOIN Office receives. Please send us an
e-mail, if you are interested in being updated on
this on a regular basis.
EU Funding Opportunities
Publications
Best Office Award 2008
Koelnmesse, WirtschaftsWoche and the Institute of
Ergonomics at the Darmstadt University of Technology
(IAD) are calling for applications for the Best Office
Award 2008. The competition is aimed at all companies, irrespective of their size or segment. Criteria and
more information are available at www.best-officeaward.com. The deadline for submissions is 15th July.
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The award ceremony will take place on 21 October.
The two award-winners will also be presented in the
WirtschaftsWoche and at a special show at Orgatec,
the international trade fair for office and facility.
Deinstitutionalisation and community
living – a European study
According to an EU study published in November
2007, replacing institutions for disabled people by
community-based services is advisable, both from an
economic and a human rights point of view. High levels
of support can also be provided in ordinary houses, if
these are appropriately equipped and adequately administrated. Community-based services are not necessarily more expensive, and they improve the life quality
of disabled citizens tremendously. A website administered by the University of Kent offers resources for
those moving towards a system of community-based
provision and independent living.
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