At the General Assembly, organized on Monday 26 April, EUREGHA members met to elect a new Executive Board. Nick Batey (Wales) passed his role as chair to Giovanni Gorgoni (AreSS Apulia), and Markus Klamminger (Lower-Austria) and Mats Ulfendahl (Region Ostergotland) will act as vice-chairs. Andrea Pavlickova will start another term as the associations treasurer.
The session was opened by Maya Matthews (DG SANTE, the European Commission) who guided the members through the current EU health policy framework. She highlighted that the pandemic, indeed, puts healthcare on the top of the political agenda. The members got the opportunity to ask questions, engage, and explore possibilities of collaboration between the European institutions and the regions.
EUREGHA Director Valentina Polylas used the event to sketch out the current advocacy strategy and underlined where the members can step in and engage with other EU health stakeholders. An additional point of discussion was the approval of the budget. It was also time to celebrate recent and ongoing joint statements, events, and partnerships. All the advocacy actions are included in the EUREGHA Activity Report, which was also published during the event.
The EUREGHA Secretariat wants to express its gratitude to the old Executive Board, led by Nick Batey, and is looking forward to continuing its mission to ensure ‘Better Health in All Regions’ together with Giovanni Gorgoni. As the new board has the responsibility to lead the network through the transition towards the new European Health Union, strong leadership and sharing best practices will be more important than ever.
