High Level Committee on Public Health

The High Level Committee on Public Health will meet in Lisbon on 7th and 8th November. Its aim is to identify priority issues within the field of public health for development involving all EU Member States and which, for this reason, should be on the agenda of the European Commission.

The meeting will be organised by the European Commission with the logistic support of the Portuguese Directorate-General of Health and will be held at the Hotel Pestana Palace in Lisbon.

The High Level Committee on Health is an informal advisory body to the Commission. Senior officials from the Health Ministries of EU Member States and candidate countries sit on the committee, which meets two or three times a year and works jointly with a number of working groups covering policy areas in depth.

Portugal is represented on the committee by the Deputy Director-General of Health, Dr José Robalo. The committee has the following main tasks:

- To provide strategic advice to the Commission on matters related to the development of health strategy. This includes input at the policy development stage on new initiatives and activities in the public health field. Moreover, the Committee also advises on links between public health policy and other health-related policy areas.

- To provide a forum of exchange of information on important health related developments at European level and in Member States. In addition to discussing strategic issues themselves, the Committee also has a specific role in disseminating information in the Member States and helping to create and strengthen the networks needed for the consideration of strategic policy issues.

 Meeting agenda (available soon)

Contacts:
José Robalo, Deputy Director-General of Health (jrobalo@dgs.pt)

Portuguese Directorate-General of Health website
EU web portal - High Level Committee on Public Health page