As Member of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum, Active Citizenship Network will join its next General Assembly that will take place online on 24 May 2022. In the past days the forum has launched an anti-war initiatives of Forum members and partners. For further information please consult their website.
Invited by the EU Commission, on the 1st of June 2022, Active Citizenship Network will take part in the ECI Network Gathering – Connecting your ideas in Brussels. The Networking Gathering brings together ECI National Contact Points, ECI ambassadors, members of the European Economic and Social Committee ECI group, representatives of the ECI Forum as well as experts from the European Commission, the European Parliament, Europe Direct Centres and other relevant stakeholders.
In this interactive meeting, we will have the chance to meet the other members of the network, share our experiences and tips from our national/professional context about communicating about active citizenship and democracy in general and the ECI in particular, and make suggestions regarding how the network could most effectively work together to make the ECI better known.
The European Commission aims to gather a collection of action points and replicable ideas to share after the event within the ECI network. We are invited to already reflect on the examples you want to bring into the wider group, to co-create the final output.
Cittadinanzattiva through its EU branch Active Citizenship Network is involved in the European Project NUDGE (NUDging consumers towards enerGy Efficiency through behavioral science) and related to this we will participate in the call to host Sustainable Energy Days that is now open. Taking place between June and September this year, Sustainable Energy Days bring the European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) 2022 to the heart of local communities, showing citizens how they can join the clean energy transition. Events can take place online or physically, anywhere around the world, as long as its focus is on renewable energy or energy efficiency. From awareness-raising to public discussions, workshops, and debates, organizers are encouraged to get creative with the format of their event and aim for an interactive approach: inspire audiences to play an active role in the promotion of renewable energy.
In line with its multi annual commitment on CVDs prevention and in continuity with our recent EU project “EU PAGs & citizens together in the fight against stroke”, Active Citizenship Network is glad to support the European Stroke Awareness Day, planned next 10 May, and the related initiatives to its knowledge partner Stroke Alliance for Europe – SAFE.
DRIVE-Development of Robust and Innovative Vaccine Effectiveness is an Innovative Medicines Initiative focus on vaccination. A multistakeholder approach in health-related studies is an upward trend. Patient groups' engagement and involvement have particularly become important in vaccine research not only to ensure equity, accountability, and transparency but also to develop partnerships and networks and to include their perspective and need in the analysis. Active Citizenship Network (ACN) - as DRIVE patient collaborator representative - answered some key questions on the impact of Covid-19 in their work and the importance of their involvement in a project such as DRIVE.
The new manuscript drafted by Active Citizenship and titled “Addressing the Challenges of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Routine Vaccinations across Europe: Focus on Flu Vaccination” has been recently published on the peer-review International Journal of Virology & Infectious Diseases. The article shows the main results of the two recent surveys carried out at the EU level by Active Citizenship Network, both realized in the Eu Project entitled “Protecting the value of vaccination during - and after - the COVID-19 pandemic across Europe: impact, experiences and perspectives from citizens’ and patients’ advocacy groups & relevant stakeholders”- #VaccinAction2021.
Within the framework of the #VaccinAction2022 EU project, Active Citizenship Network on the 29th of April 2022 has organized the seminar titled “Adult Vaccination: build the capacity and capabilities of civil society”. It has consisted of a 2-hour training seminar which has been realized during the “European Immunization Week 2022”, open to leaders of civic and patient associations from different countries in order to respond to the need to be more updated and prepared to support and protect the value, in particular, of adult immunization and its related benefit. Please download key speakers’ speeches here and watch the entire webinar on Youtube.
Cittadinanzattiva is engaged in a project to promote at the European level the importance of access to advanced therapies by the highest possible number of patients in the light of the fact that by 2030 there could be as many as 60 advanced therapies that could change the life of 350 thousand patients, but to do this, the accounting system must be changed.
To raise awareness of this need, which is at the same time a great opportunity, Cittadinanzattiva, thanks to its EU branch Active Citizenship Network, will organize the following events: a training webinar, a call to action aimed at European decision-makers, and a policy dialogue with the EU Institutions and the involvement of the key stakeholders.
The general objective is to promote the importance of advanced therapies bringing the issue of access to the attention of the patient and civic associations and create consensus regarding the "Italian solution", that is, the fact of accounting for expenditure as a multi-year investment and not as a current expenditure (like a drug that runs out of results in the very short term). Stimulating widespread awareness of the rights to personalized treatments, innovation, and access. Promoting empowerment on the issue of advanced therapies. Strengthening, on the subject, the coalition between Patient and Citizen Associations in Italy and Europe. For further information consult the LinkedIn page or the project webpages (EN – IT versions).
Active Citizenship Network is glad to have officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Heart Failure Policy Network (HFPN), an independent, multidisciplinary platform of healthcare professionals, advocacy groups and policymakers from across Europe who work together to raise awareness of unmet needs surrounding heart failure. ACN and HFPN have agreed to cooperate and support each other’s initiatives with the objective to raise awareness on the needs surrounding patient care with relation to CVDs and heart failure prevention and promote the empowerment and participation of patients in European public policies, activities, and dialogues as a key step towards a more inclusive Europe.
Active Citizenship Network has officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding with International Longevity Centre UK (ILC), the UK’s specialist think tank on the impact of longevity on society, which aims at pioneering solutions for a society where everyone can thrive, regardless of age. In this framework, ACN and ICL welcomed the opportunity to work together at the EU level to support each other’s initiatives and projects on the topic of reduction of health inequalities, vaccination, healthy ageing, and promotion of public health as a common good. The two also agreed to join forces to cooperate with EU institutions and both private and public relevant stakeholders towards a more resilient healthcare system for a healthier European Union.