On 27 April 2010, the MEP Heart Group met to discuss the issue of Women and Cardiovascular diseases.

MEPs indicated that most of them had not realised that women were affected by cardiovascular diseases (CVD) to the extent of these diseases being the first cause of death among women. This illustrates a strong lack of awareness even amongst policy makers. The objective of this meeting was to focus on what can be done at the EP level, for instance on smoking, food labelling (which is still a battle to win) or support the new European Commission in the adoption of strong regulation in the field of food composition.

The minutes of the meeting and the presentations of the speakers can be found in the pdf file below.

Agenda

12.00 – 12.30   
Lunch and photo session for MEPs with national member organisations

12.30 – 12.40 
Ms Linda McAvan MEP, Co-Chair, MEP Heart Group: Welcome and Introduction

12.40 - 12.50
Ms Eva-Britt Svensson MEP, Chair, Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) Committee: Opening remarks.
"Women's Health – the role of the European Parliament"

12.50 – 13.05   
Prof Marco Stramba-Badiale, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Italy.
Red Alert for Women's Hearts - Women and Cardiovascular Research in Europe

13.05 – 13.20  
Ms Helen Alderson, CEO of the World Heart Federation
The "Go Red for Women" International campaign

13.20 - 13.50
Discussion

13.50 - 14.00
Mr Dirk Sterckx MEP, Co-Chair, MEP Heart Group: Wrap-up and Conclusion.

Click here to view the pictures of the meeting.