The Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU Will Take Place During the First Half Of

The Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU will take place during the first half of 2015. Latvia will take over the Presidency from Italy and pass it to Luxembourg.

Latvia taking into account the results of the numerous discussions and global trends has chosen healthy lifestyle – healthy diet as one of the Presidency health priorities.

At the European Union (EU) level, diet-related health problems have been identified as one of the common major challenges. One of the important questions to answer is how to improve children's diet and healthy lifestyle and it still has to be widely and publicly discussed.

All children deserve an environment that supports the formation of healthy dietary and lifestyle habits that are crucial for optimal growth and long-term wellbeing. However, Europe is facing rising figures of childhood overweight/obesity. Despite actions taken at the European level to reverse the rising trend of overweight and obesity, the proportion of the population with overweight or obesity remains alarmingly high among children and young people.

The Latvian Presidency’s Conference „Healthy lifestyle: Nutrition and physical activity for children and young people at schools” which will take place on 23 – 24 February, 2015 in Riga, Latvia will continue activities performed by previous Presidencies - Greece and Italy underlining that nutrition and physical activity are the key health determinants affecting the life expectancy and quality of life and that children are the most important group for targeted actions, as it is crucial to promote good habits from an early age.

Therefore the main aim of the Conference is to assess the implementation progress of strategic documents on nutrition and physical activity in the EU and to discuss the future challenges in order to enhance the implementation of the policies striving to reduce childhood obesity and to promote healthy lifestyle. The Conference will be organized by Latvia in partnership with the European Commission (EC).

The Conference will focus on topics such as the EU wide policy and legislative initiatives, school meals, enabling school environment, health education, physical activity, modern technologies for children and young people to promote healthy eating habits and healthy lifestyle.

During the Conference participants and experts will have the excellent chance to meet 300 stakeholders from all EU member states, EFTA member countries, EU candidate countries, representatives from the WHO, EC, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), national nongovernmental organizations, municipalities and academics.

On-line registration prior to the Conference is mandatory for all participants and is available - https://organization.eu2015.lv/php/login.php. On-line registration for the conference will be open from 22 December 2014 until 8 February 2015.

More detailed information about Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union you can find here: https://eu2015.lv/

Conference venue: The National Library of Latvia (NLL) in Riga, also called the Castle of Light (Mūkusalas Street 3, Riga LV- 1423, Latvia; http://www.lnb.lv/en/nll-new-building).

Contact persons: Mrs Iveta Volkovska-Cielava Mrs Līva Naudiņa- Saliņa E-mail: [email protected]; E-mail: [email protected] Tel.: +317 67895822 Tel.: +317 67876100