IBE European Regional Committee meeting in Singapore 2007

The IBE European Committee held a meeting 9th of July at the 27th International Epilepsy Congress in Singapore. Representatives from eight European countries and IBE members attended the meeting. The attendants were welcomed by Peter Dahlqvist, chair of the European Committee. As usual the meeting was held in an informal and friendly atmosphere with plenty of discussions, questions and also ideas for the Executive Committee to consider and bring in to the committee work and action.

At the meeting the European Executive Committee (EREC) gave a report on their work 2006 – 2007. One of the major issues for the committee is the European Conference on Epilepsy and Society that takes place every second year. The next conference will be held the 16 – 18 October 2008 in Marseille, France. The main focuses of the conference are Quality of Life issues together with issues regarding political action, advocacy and so forth. At present the Organising Committee is working on finalising the programme with interesting speakers in close collaboration with IDM and the French IBE member AISPACE.

The Executive Committee could also report from the work to develop support and contacts to encourage development of new member organisations in countries with no IBE members. Some first contacts have been taken in Bosnia Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia and Albania.

At the meeting there was also a report from the ongoing work in the EUCARE project.
EUCARE is a research project that will collect data on newly diagnosed people from clinics from all over Europe.

Former IBE president Phil Lee gave also an interesting report on progress of the Global Campaign as well as from the work of the IBE Enlargement Commission.

Everybody at the meeting was finally encouraged to participate at the ever first European and Asian parallel session that was held at the International Congress in Singapore. “European and Asian Action to Improve Quality of Life” included two European and two Asian examples on how Political Action can be used to improve Quality of Life for persons with epilepsy. Presentations were given on important issues like driving licenses and differences in legislations within Europe and in Asia, as well as political action and canvassing at parliaments and how to increase awareness among decision makers and politicians.

Peter Dahlqvist
Chair IBE European Committee