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European Forum for Vaccine Vigilance
We Stand for Freedom of Choice In Vaccination For All Europeans

Initiatives addressed to the European Parliament

“Unfortunately, we are seeing greater vaccine mandates in some member states; for example, France and Italy increased their compulsory vaccines 2017/2018, increased fines to parents and restricted vaccine exemptions.  The EFVV’s petition “ for freedom of informed vaccination consent…(link)” on Change.org doubled from 85,000 in 2017 to 170,000 in April 2018, showing the strength of feeling with many citizens. This petition has been translated into 13 different languages.  Many cities staged marches and protests; Italy for example, marched in a different Italian city for every day in August. The largest number of protestors was 10,000 yet there was no press coverage.

The EFVV had previously attempted to file an official petition in late 2015 with the EU but it was declined because ‘Union action in the area of public health shall complement national policies and must respect the responsibilities of the Member States for the definition of their health policies and for the organization and delivery of health services.  

Consequently, the vaccination policy is a competence of individual Member States. The ENVI committee (Environment, Public Health and Food Safety) public consultation (December 2017 – March 2018) has called for various initiatives to address ‘vaccine hesitancy’, including strengthening vaccine policy and perhaps even looking at harmonizing vaccine legislation.

In 2014, the EFVV shared a press release calling for mandatory surveillance systems for routine vaccines. We continue to call for better surveillance and reporting systems. (The press release is attached here)

The EFVV was listed on the EU Transparency Register March 2018  meaning that members of the EFVV can be accredited to enter the EU. One member attended the ENVI vote on the amendments for example. We plan to attend meetings and join discussions where we can. The last time EFVV members attended the EU was in 2010 where we were invited to the Pharmocovigilance Hearing Managing Medicines Risks in Europe: and we put a question to the panel.

In mid-2018, the European Commission will adopt a proposal for a Council Recommendation on Strengthened Cooperation against Vaccine Preventable Diseases.

Therefore they sent out a questionnaire in dec 2017 to collect the views and input of citizens, administrations, associations and other relevant organisations to feed into the process of drafting a proposal for the Council Recommendation.

https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/open-public-consultation-strengthened-cooperation-against-vaccine-preventable-diseases_en

Council Recommendation on strengthened cooperation against vaccine preventable diseases
Strengthened cooperation against vaccine preventable diseases
Feedback period: 4 December 2017 – 1 January 2018

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/initiatives/ares-2017-5925775_en
368 feedbacks open to read.

Health Committee MEPs warn against dropping vaccination rates:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20180319IPR00021/health-committee-meps-warn-against-dropping-vaccination-rates

List of current members, MEP’s European Parliament

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/full-list.html

This is our response to the commission.

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/initiatives/ares-2017-5925775/feedback/F8466_en

During April 2018 we also sent this document to the member of the European Parliament.

“Understanding the principles and limits of measles vaccines could save more lives”