Message from EPA President Geert Dom
Dear Colleagues and friends,
Foremost at the beginning of this new year 2024 I wish you and your families and friends good health, warmth, and solidarity.
Our EPA community is growing and indeed, 2023 was a very good year for EPA! In addition to our very successful Paris 2023 Congress, hosting over 4000 participants, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of EPA with a high impact policy event held in Brussels, in the European parliament, on 6th of December 2023. The event, entitled “Psychiatry and Mental Health in Europe: what next?” was privileged to have a key-note presentation by Herman Van Rompuy, President Emeritus of the Council of the EU, and as well as insightful contributions of Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner, Natasha Azzopardi Muscat, WHO Europe, Alex Agius Saliba, MEP, Peter Kéri, GAMIAN-Europe, André Decraene, EUFAMI, and Marisa Cassanova Dias, UEMS, all of which ensured an event of high policy impact and visibility.
At this occasion, EPA presented its European Elections Manifesto, that I invite you strongly to read and share through your networks. With our manifesto we try to impact all MEP candidates that stand for European elections in June 2024 to put crucial mental health action points on their agenda.
On a personal note, I am very happy to report that the two main topics I outlined at the start of my presidency are moving according to plan.
First, together with our partners at UEMS an enthusiastic group of colleagues have joined the different working groups preparing the first European Board Exam of Psychiatry. The foundation of this project has now been secured and a concrete syllabus draft, question-bank build-up, and exam procedure will be further outlined in 2024. I am very confident that the first European Board Exam of Psychiatry will be organized for the beginning of 2025.
Bringing EPA and the Council of National Psychiatric Associations (NPA’s) closer together is a second priority. Much work has been done by the NPA’s Steering Committee and the EPA Executive Committee in preparing a new organizational structure. This will be proposed at our General Assembly, to be held on 7th April 2024. I am very hopeful that this new organizational model will facilitate a stronger and more impactful European psychiatry on all domains: clinical, policy, research, and education.
Taken together, I am really looking forward to all the new things 2024 will bring, and especially to meeting many of you at our 32nd European psychiatry Congress in Budapest, Hungary, on 6th-9th April 2024.
Warm regards,
Prof. Geert Dom
EPA President
Read the President’s inaugural message from 2023!