New Board and Members!
The Annual General Meeting is also the occasion to approve new memberships and for our members to redefine the structure of the EPF Board. We therefore welcomed four new Full Members; one new Associate Member and elected new Board Members for a two year term.
A New Board Elected!
EPF members expressed once again their confidence in Anders Olauson from Eurordis; Susanna Palkonen from the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients Associations (EFA); and Tomasz Szelągowski from the Federation of Polish Patients (FPP) to shape the new Board. They wer re-elected as EPF President, vice-President and Treasurer respectively.
We are delighted to welcome two new Members of the Board:
Brian Charles West will represent the European AIDS Treatment Group: “Being part of the EPF Board will give me the opportunity to share the wider picture of what is happening in other disease areas with the EATG membership – and would allow for the cross-fertilisation of ideas and initiatives. It will help my organisation to achieve its aim - of all people living with HIV having universal and equitable access to prevention, treatment, care and support.”
Dominik Tomek is appointed by the Association for the Protection of Patients' Rights in Slovak Republic: “I will bring my long experience in healthcare, administration and science. I am familiar with involving patients in healthcare on a daily basis as part of my work. Being a patient myself and a patient’s relative, taking care of my disabled daughter, I know what it means to live with a condition every day and I became an expert on what works for patients and what does not.”
Current board members, Vida Augustinienė from the Lithuanian Diabetes Association; Marco Greco of the Federation of Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis Associations (EFCCA); Robert Andrew Johnstone of National Voice UK and Stanimir Hasurdjiev of the National Patients’ Organization (NPO) will continue their mandate for a further year. 
Two of our Board Members, Avril Daly from Fighting Blindness and Philip Chircop from the Malta Health Network (MHN) left our Board as they have decided to step down this year. We wish to thank them wholeheartedly for their engagement and we will continue to work together with them in future EPF-related activities.
Link to the EPF Board
Extending Our Membership!
The AGM approved several new membership requests. The Hungarian Alliance of Patients’ Organisations (HAPO), the Croatian Coalition of Associations in Healthcare (CAH), the European Aids Treatment Group (EATG), and the European Haemophilia Consortium (EHC) have joined EPF as Full members, while the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland became an Associate member.
As from the next edition of this newsletter, we will introduce you to our new members every month on our blog. Stay tuned!
We now represent the interests of 64 official members, who are either specific chronic disease groups working at EU level or are national coalitions of patients.
All the pictures of our AGM are available both on our FlickR and Facebook accounts.
Contact: Nicola Bedlington, EPF Executive Director, nicola.bedlington@eu-patient.eu.