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The creation of an EU public health portal is an initiative under the Public Health Programme 2003-2008.
The portal should allow better and simplified access for citizens, patients, policy makers and other interested persons to data and information on public health, to all Commission activities on public health and related areas (for instance on patient mobility aspects), and to public health work in national administrations throughout Europe.
EU policy and activities on Health Information are of crucial importance and increasingly essential both for evidence-based decision-making and for private decisions on behaviour and lifestyle.
Health-EU will make available more quality information, and help to increase transparency and institutional coordination and communication, as well as empowering and delivering more to the citizens.
The Portal will also facilitate access to EU publications and legislative acts adopted by the European Communities. The EU is supporting promotion of information to provide the EU population with a clearer overview of the existing legal framework. This is a fundamental step towards making people aware of their rights and of the advantages they can benefit from as citizens of the EU.
Technical Functionalities & Approach
One of the key features of the Portal is that it provides in a thematic way a picture of health issues at Community level. There are six themes and each of these leads to various topics of interest, where people will find a range of links to policies and activities in the European Union.
Each of these themes and topics are replicated across all the 27 Member States, EEA and accession countries, and there are moreover comprehensive links to European NGOs and international organisations.
Furthermore, it includes the creation of a capacity to generate and collect relevant health information at EU level, as well as the possibility of editing results for electronic publishing from other EU projects.
The relevant information on public health is collected under a single point of stratified access that will bring together information and provide a platform for many citizen-oriented health information actions under the entire public health programme. This is being done in co-ordination with national sites and initiatives in this area.
The portal has a comprehensive search and linkage mechanism that will make the information at EU level and beyond, easily available to users. In addition, data content has been designed to serve the various users.
The portal is to be hosted by the Commission services and will be managed in close co-operation with the Member States through the Public Health Portal Editorial Board composed of representatives from the Commission and the Network of Competent Authorities (NCA). The Editorial Board will shape the editorial policy of the Health Portal, advise on thematic approaches and nominate experts who will identify the national websites to which the Portal could be linked.
A group of portal correspondents from all Commission services was created to further develop the design of the Portal and in order to put a communication structure into place.
In the longer term, the Commission will look to the Board and Member States to revise and update the core content, events, news and initiatives at EU and regional levels. There will be a highly visible link to the Commissioner’s website and to the respective Presidency of the EU.
By offering a single access point for information on public health, a clear thematic structure and an easy navigation, Health-EU will benefit various parties.
Citizens and patients: will have better, user-friendlier and multi-lingual access to topic health information, general statistics, as well as descriptive data and information at pan-European level.
Professional audiences: this includes health professionals, teachers, students, policy makers and civil servants in public administrations who need access to timely, accurate and comparable descriptions of health situation, health determinants and health policies in the EU.
IDABC has financed the development phase of the Portal and will share the accumulated experience obtained through the development of the Your Europe Portal. The Health Portal will also make use of CIRCA as a networking tool for the Editorial Board and the data providers, as well as of TESTA.
Key Data
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Project start date
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2002
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Project completion date
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2006
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Project status
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Development
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IDA budget
IDABC budget
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2004: € 600,000
2005: € 700,000
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Service in charge
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Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection (SANCO)
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Responsible action manager
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MANN Daniel
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Contact
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Countries involved
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All EU Member States. Candidate countries and EEA countries will be involved to a certain extent.
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Public websites
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Decision No 1786/2002/EC of the European Parliament & of the Council of 23 September 2002
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Print
EUPHIN GIP - December 2002 
