Members Of European Parliament Call For Development Of European Action Plan On Alzheimer's Disease

Main Category: Alzheimer's / Dementia
Article Date: 08 Oct 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Today, Françoise Grossetête (France), John Bowis (United Kingdom), Katalin Levai (Hungary), Jan Tadeusz Masiel (Poland) and Antonios Trakatellis (Greece) joined forces to issue a call to the European Commission and the Council of Ministers to recognise Alzheimer's disease as a European public health priority and to develop a European Action Plan on Alzheimer's disease.

In a Written Declaration, the Members of the European Parliament from five different European countries and three different political groups call in particular for increased European collaboration on research into the causes, prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, as well as earlier diagnosis, improved support for people with dementia and their carers and better recognition of the role of Alzheimer associations.

Françoise Grossetête, Chairperson of the European Alzheimer's Alliance stressed: "As Members of the European Parliament, we cannot remain indifferent to the 6.1 million European citizens who live with Alzheimer's disease or a different form of dementia today. We give our full support to the French Presidency initiative to improve the collaboration between Member States on research and the exchange of best practices."

Jean Georges, Executive Director of Alzheimer Europe welcomed the European Parliament initiative: "I am delighted that five Members of the European Parliament haven given such clear support to our campaign to make dementia a European. The written declaration follows closely on the decision of the Council of Ministers to improve the collaboration between Member States on dementia research, but this call goes even further. We fully support the proposal to develop a comprehensive European action plan on Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia which will also focus on the exchange of best practices in the areas of care and social support of people with dementia and their carers. We hope that Members of the European Parliament will overwhelmingly support this call of their colleagues."

European Alzheimer's Alliance