SHUTTERSTOCK
Getting things done in the European Parliament – A new written declaration on breast cancer A written declaration on the Fight Against Breast Cancer in the European Union co-authored by 10 MEPs and backed by EUROPA DONNA – The European Breast Cancer Coalition – was recently released at the opening of the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg. It calls for the implementation of measures across Europe to battle this disease, which is the leading cause of death in European women aged 35 to 59, and it emphasises the needs of women with metastatic breast cancer. Susan Knox, EUROPA DONNA Executive Director, said: “This is our call to all MEPs in all 28 member states to sign this Declaration. This Written Declaration serves as a reminder to MEPs, new and old, of the need to implement the European Resolutions on Breast Cancer and the European Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Breast Cancer Screening and Diag-
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nosis (EU guidelines) which we are striving to have implemented Europe-wide,” The submission of the Declaration is an initiative of MEP Nessa Childers (Ireland) [See profile of Nessa on previous page] with co-signatories MEPs Simona Bonafè (Italy), Anna Záborská (Slovakia), Lidia Joanna Geringer de Oedenberg (Poland), Françoise Grossetête (France), Marisa Matias (Portugal), Emma McClarkin (UK), Biljana Borzan (Croatia), Alojz Peterle (Slovenia) and Miriam Dalli (Malta). For the Written Declaration to be adopted a majority of MEPs must sign it before 27 July 2015. Every year 367,090 women in the European Union are diagnosed with breast cancer and 91,495 women die of the disease. The lifetime risk of developing breast cancer for women in the EU-28 is 1 in 8. The Declaration therefore calls for: ●● Member States to implement nationwide breast screening, in accordance
with EU guidelines States to provide multidisciplinary specialist breast units (SBUs) in accordance with EU guidelines by the 2016 deadline ●● Member States to ensure that people with metastatic breast cancer have access to, and are treated in, an SBU and that their ongoing needs for care and psychosocial services are co-ordinated and supported by the SBU, as per EU guidelines ●● The European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer (ECIBC) project to deliver an accreditation protocol for breast cancer services by 2016; this protocol must ensure that mammography screening programmes and SBUs meet the requirements of the current EU guidelines and of the updated version of the EU guidelines, to be undertaken by the ECIBC in 2015. ●● Member