European Public Health Alliance

Last updated
European Public Health Alliance
AbbreviationEPHA
Formation1992
HeadquartersRue de Trèves 49-51, 10, 1040 Brussels, Belgium
Official language
English
Secretary General
Dr. Milka Sokolovic [1]
President
Paolo Lauriola
Website https://epha.org

The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) is a European non-profit association registered and headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Its membership consists of 45 non-profit organisations active in public health in 12 European countries including 10 EU Member States. 1/3 of the members are national/local organisations, 2/3 are European federations. 1/4 of the national/local members are from the UK. Almost 1 in 5 member organisations represents Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM).

Contents

EPHA's stated mission is to: "bring together the public health community to provide thought leadership and facilitate change, to build public health capacity to deliver equitable solutions to European public health challenges, to improve health and reduce health inequalities". EPHA stated aim is to "collate the perspectives from[ sic ] the many sectors its members represent and contributes them to European policy dialogues".

EPHA claims to be the largest civil society platform of organisations working together to protect and improve public health in Europe. [2]

Structure

EPHA is an international non-profit organisation ( NL: IVZW, FR: AISBL) under Belgian law. Its statutes are approved by its General Assembly, composed of representatives of its members.

EPHA is composed of two governing bodies, the General Assembly and the Management Board. [3] Both are chaired by the President of EPHA. The General Assembly is the governing body through which members discuss and decide on the strategy of EPHA on the basis of proposals from the Management Board.

The General Assembly consists of all members, each entitled to a vote at the General Assembly. Only members who have duly paid their membership fees can exercise their right to vote.

The Management Board is vested with the powers of management and administration of EPHA and is authorized to carry out all acts and take all decisions that are necessary or useful for the realisation of the purpose and activities of EPHA. In particular, it is responsible for:

It appoints the most senior employee of the Association (whether called Director General or by any other title) to see to the daily management of EPHA, and to enlist the support of members.

The EPHA Board is composed of 3-7 representatives elected by members of the EPHA for a 2-year mandate. As of June 2024, Paolo Lauriola is the President of the board. [1] [2]

History

The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) organisation was established in 1993 after the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 which for the first time gave the European Community responsibilities in health protection. The European Community Amsterdam Treaty Article 152 extended EU competence to promoting health of European citizens, in addition to protecting it as in Article 129 of the Maastricht Treaty.[ citation needed ]

Anonymous Allegations and Resignations

In February 2024 allegations of nepotism, toxic work culture and organisational mismanagement were made anonymously to the board. [4] The Board subsequently appointed the Belgian Law firm Thales on February 7 to investigate those allegations. The scope of the investigation also included specific questions on recruitment and promotion processes for top managers. The director-general allegedly recruited her husband and promoted him to the number two position in the organisation without prior approval of the board as well as introducing a new salary system without full board approval.

By the end of March 2024, the President, Vice President, Treasurer and an additional Board Member resigned from their positions. The Vice President and one of the board members were explicit about the reasons for their resignation which related to the mismanagement of the office, the increasingly reduced role of the board, and the lack of confidence in the legal investigation conducted by Thales. [5] The positions of President and Treasurer were then appointed from the remaining board members still in office.

The Board received the Thales’ final report on April 18 and thoroughly analysed its conclusions. The board refused to share the report with EPHA members in spite of repeated requests including at the June 2024 Annual General Assembly. The new 3-person Board (4 board places remained unfilled due to lack of candidates) claimed that the investigation found no evidence of discrimination based on nationality or gender in recruitment, promotion, dismissals, etc. as per the Belgian Anti discrimination Act of 2007 nor of moral harassment based on the 1996 Act. However, the scope of the investigation went further than a purely legalistic check of the different aspects of the alleged mismanagement but these wider findings were never published nor shared with the EPHA membership.

Thales made recommendations about EPHA’s governance and overall organisation to strengthen its future. The husband of the EPHA Director-General stood down from his position as number two at EPHA. None of the EPHA members were allowed access to these recommendations. The Board adopted these recommendations, which focus on:

The Board has also reiterated its support and confidence in all staff, management, and EPHA’s Director General, Mrs. Milka Sokolovic, who has made important contributions to EPHA in recent years. This is most evident in the comprehensive accountability report [6] listing the growth and achievements in strengthening the organisation in the period since the appointment of Milka Sokolovic up to the end of 2023.

In the meantime, EPHA lost almost one third of its member organisations in 2024. Many left because they were not satisfied with the governance and management of the organisation. All 15 EPHA expert advisors except one left the organisation for similar reasons in 2024.


See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "People". EPHA. 15 March 2024. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  2. 1 2 "About Us". EPHA. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  3. ↑ https://epha.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/epha-statutes-2023.pdf
  4. ↑ https://www.politico.eu/article/epha-eu-public-health-alliance-ngo-brussels-toxic-work-environment-claims-nepotism-harassment-discrimination/
  5. ↑ https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/politico-eu-influence/the-most-chaotic-ngo-in-town-2/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social
  6. ↑ https://epha.org/epha-accountability-report-2021-2023/
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