EuroSafe, host 2nd European Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion

Eurosafe, the European Association for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion hosted the 2nd European Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion on 9-10 October 2008 in Paris.

The main objective of the Conference, organised by EuroSafe in collaboration with the French Consumer Safety Commission (Commission de la Sécurité des Consommateurs) and WHO/Europe under the auspices of the French presidency of the EU Council, was to help move the implementation of the EU Council Recommendation forward which was adopted in May 2007.

The Recommendation invites Member States to:

make better use of existing injury data and develop national injury surveillance and reporting systems; and
set up national plans for injury prevention that include safety promotion in education and professional training.

The conference assisted this process and in particular helped to facilitate capacity building and the development of national plans for injury prevention and safety promotion by highlighting evidence of successful injury prevention policies and programmes; sharing examples of comprehensive injury data collection systems and national safety programmes; involving stakeholders from government, civil society, private sector and academia; and providing European and national networks for safety promotion with opportunities for discussion of the best way to move forward.

Speakers included Meglena Kuneva, European Commissioner for Consumer Protection and Luc Chatel, French Minister of State for Industry and Consumer Affairs, and Government Spokesman.

The full Conference Programme can be found here:

http://www.eurosafe.eu.com/csi/eurosafe2006.nsf/wwwVwContent/16C893D7B27F3AB2C12574730038F6A2?opendocument&context=7CEDCA0517D47B31C1257177003C9226

A Conference Special Eurosafe Alert is Available on the website: http://www.ecosa.org/

Eurosafe is also a partner in the EC funded Apollo Project (Strategies and best practices for the reduction of injuries), running from December 2005 for three years.

One of the deliverables of the Dissemination Work Package of the Project is to “ create a sustainable network of European organisations and their national member organisations that play a role in implementing injury prevention policies in order to ensure the maximum input in deliverables and participation in different APOLLO WPs”.

Eurocare, along with other NGOs and APOLLO work partners, met during the Paris Conference to endorse an ‘ NGO Declaration on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion in the European Union'.

More information about the Apollo Project can be found here:

http://www.ecosa.org/csi/eurosafe2006.nsf/wwwVwContent/l2apollo.htm