On 1st July 2014, Italy took over the six-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union, starting a new Trio Presidency, together with Latvia and Luxembourg. The day after, the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, presented the programme to the new elected European Parliament, which marks the official start of the 12th Italian EU Presidency.
The stimulation of economic growth and the fight against youth unemployment will be at the heart of the Italian Presidency, which will look in particular at the improvement and enhancement of professionals’ mobility. Therefore, the implementation of Directive 2013/55/EU becomes even more relevant.
With this regard, the EFN has been closely collaborating with the Italian Ministry of Health to negotiate the political priorities. The EFN will participate at various meetings of the Italian Presidency in the coming six months where key EFN priorities will be central, such as the above mentioned implementation of the Directive 213/55/EU, the deployment of eHealth services by nurses and the promotion of patient safety through infection control. Being Italy the first presidency of the Trio, it will start actions on these topics which will be continued by the Latvian and Luxembourg EU Presidencies.
Furthermore, Italy plans to create organisational and thematic synergies between its EU Presidency and the Expo 2015 “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, that will take place in Milan between May and October 2015 and to which nurses will contribute substantially through different activities, focusing in particular on nutrition and disease prevention.
For more information, please follow the link: Italian EU Presidency