EU-EYE launched as nine european subspecialty ophthalmology societies join forces

Nine European subspecialty ophthalmology societies have decided to join forces in order to raise political and public awareness of ophthalmology and secure increased funding for vision research.

EU-EYE, as the new organisation is to be known, was officially launched during the XXXIII Congress of the ESCRS in Barcelona, Spain.

“We decided to pool our efforts in order to have better visibility and better performance, and also to focus on broader issues rather than focus on specific eye diseases,” said Prof Thierry Zeyen of the European Glaucoma Society, who will serve as president of the new organisation.

The EU-EYE advocacy strategy has two main objectives, said Prof Zeyen – to raise political and public awareness of ophthalmology and also to generate increased funding for vision research.

Prof Zeyen said that EU-EYE will seek to work around three main themes: firstly, increasing and sustaining political awareness for ophthalmic subspecialties; secondly, raising the profile of ophthalmology within EU research funding; and thirdly, to gather and disseminate information among stakeholders in the field and at political level.

“We want policymakers to be fully aware that blindness and visual impairment affect over 28million people in Europe, with cataracts, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy the main causes of visual loss. Vision impairment not only poses a burden on individuals through decreased quality of life, it also has an impact on society as a whole through increased healthcare spending and productivity losses,”  he said.

One of the main goals of EU-EYE will be to address this problem by calling for increased funding into vision research and ensuring that EU institutions take vision impairment into account when defining policies aimed at tackling chronic diseases and promoting healthy living.

The EU-EYE board will include one or two members from each individual society, appointed by their individual boards. The larger societies, such as the ESCRS and EURETINA, will be able to appoint two members, but will still have only one vote. The EU-EYE executive committee consists of Thierry Zeyen from the EGS, as president; Einar Stefánsson from EURETINA, as vice-president; Jesper Hjortdal from the EEBA, as secretary; Peter Barry from the ESCRS, as treasurer; and Leopold Schmetterer from EVER.

EU-EYE has appointed Agenda Communications in Dublin, Ireland, to act as its secretariat, and public relations and communications firm Burson-Marsteller to serve as its external advocacy advisor in Brussels.

“It is very important to have this type of expertise available in Brussels if one wants to find one’s way within the structure of the main European institutions,” said Prof Zeyen.

•          Further information on EU-EYE  is available at: www.eueye.org