UN Secretary General’s NCD Progress Report released - The report mandated by the 2011 United Nations Political Declaration on Non Communicable Diseases, marks the first step in the preparatory process for the 2014 UN Review and Assessment on NCDs. It details new challenges in tackling NCDs, summarises the actions taken by WHO to fulfill the commitments made in the Political Declaration, outlines agreements by Member States to establish the global NCD architecture, and looks ahead to the 2014 UN NCD Review by providing recommendations to accelerate progress. Click here to access the report.

Work kicks off for 4th edition of the Diabetes Policy Puzzle - This year, IDF Europe, FEND, PCDE and EURADIA (the organisations making up the European Coalition for Diabetes - ECD) will be working on the 4th edition of the Diabetes Policy Puzzle. The publication will aim to document the evolution of the diabetes epidemic and the national policies and practices that currently exist across the European region. Questionnaires will be circulated to your organisations and other national stakeholders in March. Your expertise and knowledge about diabetes in your country will be essential to the success and quality of this publication. The 4th edition of the Policy Puzzle will be launched this November on World Diabetes Day. For more information, contact Elodie.Besnier@idf-europe.org

Greece takes up EU Council Presidency In From January to June 2014 - Latest news on the Greek Presidency, its programme and its priorities are available on the Presidency's website. Further to the Presidency’s priorities that we shared with you last month, the European Parliament committee responsible for health met with the Greek Minister for Health for an exchange of views. The Greek Minister concluded by saying that innovations that can reform healthcare and help patients will be set as a priority during the Greek Presidency.

EU Council confirms agreement on Clinical Trials - Last month, the Council approved a compromise agreed with the European Parliament on a draft regulation aimed at facilitating and speeding up the authorization procedure of clinical trials. The main objective is to encourage clinical trials within the European Union while at the same time maintaining the necessary standard of patient’s safety. It provides for a uniform application of common rules while Member States will remain independent in assessing notably ethical issues. Read more. 

Launch of Public Consultation on Patient safety and Quality of Care - Deadline to respond is 28 February 2014. For more information and to respond to the questionnaire, click here.

  Upcoming Events

• A New Global Partnership: European civil society positions on the post 2015 framework, 13-14 February, Brussels. For more information, click here.

• Greek Presidency Conference on Nutrition and Physical activity, 25-26 February 2014, Athens. 

• 7th International Conference on Advanced Technologies and Treatments for Diabetes, 5-8 February 2014, Vienna. Find out more.

Action on Sugar: New Global campaign takes aim at reducing high levels of sugar in foods and drinks

This month, a new global campaign has been launched with the aim of bringing together experts and policy makers to tackle the current global epidemic of obesity and diabetes by reducing 'unnecessarily high' levels of sugar in food and beverage products. For more information on this campaign, click here.