Last Friday, 26 November 2010, the European Commission invited key health players such as public and private associations, companies, individuals and academia to participate in a multi-stakeholder meeting that aimed at seeking the views on how the EU can scale up innovation to meet the challenges of an ageing population and in particular to increase by two the average number of healthy life years for European citizens.
The kick off meeting of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on active and healthy ageing has received the support of three different Commissioners: John Dalli, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs, Neelie Kroes, EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda and Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, EU Commissioner for Research. This is a strong message from the European Commission to commit to innovation.
Later in the day, and following the Council competitiveness meeting, EU Member States gave their support to the pilot European Innovation Partnership on active and healthy ageing. This Council support opened the European Commission’s open consultation on active and healthy ageing. Health First Europe will be contributing to this online consultation that will run till 28 January 2011.
For more information: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/einclusion/deployment/ahaip/consultation/index_en.htm