Ninth Meeting of the European Union Physical Activity Focal Points Network
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Ninth meeting of the European Union Physical Activity Focal Points Network Luxembourg January 2019 25-26 October 2018 Original: English Ninth meeting of the European Union Physical Activity Focal Points Network Meeting Report Address requests about publications of the WHO Regional Office for Europe to: Publications WHO Regional Office for Europe UN City, Marmorvej 51 DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark Alternatively, complete an online request form for documentation, health information, or for permission to quote or translate, on the Regional Office website (http://www.euro.who.int/pubrequest). © World Health Organization, 2018. All rights reserved. The Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization welcomes requests for permission to reproduce or translate its publications, in part or in full. 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The views expressed by authors, editors, or expert groups do not necessarily represent the decisions or the stated policy of the World Health Organization. 2 CONTENTS Background .................................................................................................................... 4 Day 1: Joint Meeting of the European Union Physical Activity Focal Points Network and of the High Level Group on Nutrition and Physical Activity ................................. 5 Welcome addresses .................................................................................................... 5 Promotion of health at EU level................................................................................. 5 Sport policy ................................................................................................................ 5 Health policy .............................................................................................................. 6 Agriculture Policy ...................................................................................................... 8 Nutrition, physical activity and obesity actions and activities of the WHO Regional Office for Europe ....................................................................................................... 9 Making schools a healthy place ............................................................................... 10 EU Health Policy Platform ...................................................................................... 14 Promotion of healthy lifestyles, from data to action ................................................ 14 Life Kinetik: Challenge your brain. Movement with cognitive elements ............... 17 Strengthening cross-sector cooperation ................................................................... 17 Testimony from a former top-level athlete .............................................................. 19 Concluding remarks and closing of Day 1 ............................................................... 20 Day 2: 9th European Union Physical Activity Focal Points Network .......................... 20 Preparation of country factsheets: lessons learned and how to improve next time . 21 Exercise Works – Embedding physical activity in the undergraduate curriculum .. 23 Transfer of best practices – The Swedish physical activity on prescription model . 25 Conclusions and next steps ...................................................................................... 27 Health determinants and international relations .................................................. 35 Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety ................................................. 35 Health determinants and international relations .................................................. 35 Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety ................................................. 35 JRC — Joint Research Centre.............................................................................. 35 Health determinants and international relations .................................................. 36 Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety ................................................. 36 Directorate-General for Employment, ................................................................. 36 Social Affairs and Inclusion................................................................................. 36 Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety ................................................. 36 3 Background In the context of the European Union Council Recommendation on Promoting Health-Enhancing Physical Activity (HEPA) Across Sectors adopted in 2013 (hereafter referred to as ‘the Council Recommendation’), EU Member States were requested to appoint national physical activity focal points, notably to support the monitoring framework for HEPA policies and physical activity. As part of the collaboration to implement the above-mentioned Recommendation in the EU and to promote physical activity across Europe, the European Commission, Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC), Sport Unit, and the WHO Regional Office for Europe, Division of Noncommunicable Diseases and Promoting Health through the Life-course, held the ninth meeting of this Focal Points Network on 25-26 October 2018 in Luxembourg. The EU Physical Activity Guidelines, the Council Recommendation, as well as the WHO Physical Activity Recommendations and the Physical Activity Strategy for the WHO European Region 2016–2025 provide principles that require policy coherence across Europe. Some of these principles have been implemented with relative success in several Member States. However, challenges continue to exist, and there is a need to improve the design and implementation of policies that promote physical activity. The European Commission and the WHO Regional Office for Europe have been cooperating to develop and scale-up monitoring and surveillance of HEPA in the European Union Member States. The second edition of the Factsheets on health-enhancing physical activity in the 28 European Union Member States of the WHO European Region, for which Focal 1 Points had recently collected data, was launched in September 2018. The ninth Focal Point meeting included a joint meeting with the European Union High Level Group on Nutrition and Physical Activity. The joint Focal Point and High Level Group meeting, on 25 October 2018, discussed the promotion of health at the EU level through sport, health and agriculture policy. In addition, the opportunities for making schools a healthy place were explored, along with consideration of issues around translating data into action for promoting healthy lifestyles and roundtable discussions on strengthening cross-sector cooperation. Participants in the joint meeting included the Focal Points and members of the High Level Group, representing 28 Member States and Norway. Representatives of the European Commission (four Directorates General and the Joint Research Centre), the World Health Organization, represented by staff from the Regional Office for Europe, external speakers, observers and a rapporteur also participated.2 The ninth focal point meeting, on 26 October 2018, reviewed the process for preparation of the second edition of the factsheets in order to identify lessons for the future, heard about important initiatives relating to promoting physical activity through the health sector and discussed next steps for the focal point network. 1 Available in English at: http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/physical-activity/country-work/factsheets- on-health-enhancing-physical-activity-in-the-28-eu-member-states-of-the-who-european-region 2 See Annex 1 for a full list of participants. 4 Day 1: Joint Meeting of the European Union Physical Activity Focal Points Network and of the High Level Group on Nutrition and Physical Activity Welcome addresses Yves Le Lostecque, Head of Sport Unit, DG EAC, European Commission, welcomed participants and set out the background to this unprecedented joint meeting. The Tartu Call for A Healthy Lifestyle – signed by Commissioners Navracsics, Andriukaitis and Hogan on 22 September 2017 – included a commitment to enhance dialogue across health and sports networks through, for example, joint meetings of the physical activity Focal Points network and the High Level Group. He thanked Commission colleagues in the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), and WHO for organising the meeting, which