Dear EB members,

As you are aware, we set up a brief meeting of the Executive Board members of the WHO European region in the margins of the Regional Committee in Rome. Almost all countries representing the European EB members were present, either through the EB member or another representative.

We would like to use this opportunity to thank all colleagues for the great exchange and positive spirit of our short discussion. This message is being sent to all European EB members plus their alternates “bcc”.

We initiated this meeting, because we believe it is a great opportunity for the EB members to exchange views on current and future initiatives and challenges linked to our responsibilities as EB members, also apart from the formal meetings of the EB in Geneva. Such informal meeting are useful also to set up a level of confidence in between the relevant colleagues and to exchange on views on how the Executive Board could act more pro-actively and dynamic in the future. Furthermore, as we represent the European region, it might be worth discussing how we as European EB members can ensure that the interests of our region are well articulated in the Geneva governing bodies, if relevant.

In our short meeting, we concluded that we should use future opportunities to set up similar meetings of our group e.g. in the margins of WHO conferences that are attended by the European EB members. However, we would want to make sure that we hold a similar meeting  during the next Regional Committee. From my point of view, it would be great to start an exchange between us on what each of our countries want to achieve through our membership in the Executive Board, as I believe we share many common goals.

However, in order to establish a better exchange in between us, we realised, that until now, we do not even have a list of all European EB members with mail address or further contact details.

Therefore, we agreed that I would take the initiative and approach all European EB members (and were relevant their alternates) in order to ask them to send me their contact details (email and if acceptable a phone number), so I could set up an email list and a full document with contact details, to be shared with all European EB members.

So please let me know, whether you agree to set up this contact detail list (and it being shared with all European EB members) and if so, please forward the contact details that you wish to have included on the list.

Once I have received feedback from the entire group, I will forward the list to all European EB members (and – where relevant – their alternates).

Best regards,

Björn Kümmel
Deputy Head of Division
___________________________________


Global Health
Federal Ministry of Health

Friedrichstraße 108, 10117 Berlin

Postal Address: 11055 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0)30 18441-2563
bjoern.kuemmel@bmg.bund.de
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