Contributed by Bernard Gouget,SFBC-FESCC representative, FESCC advisory board member

The Health-EU Public Health thematic Portal (the official public health portal of the European Union) has launched in a colorful, user-friendly format. Designed for the European public, the new portal is available in all 20 official EU languages and also has information destined for health care professionals. The main objective of this thematic Portal is to provide European citizens with easy access to comprehensive information on Public Health initiatives and programmes at EU level. The portal is intended to help meet EU objectives in the Public Health field, it is an important instrument to positively influence behavior and promote the steady improvement of public health in the 25 EU Member States. The Health-EU Portal is directed at those who want to keep informed about issues affecting their health, and at those who wish to keep up to date with policies and decisions taken at European, national and international level. The Portal is also an important source of information for health professionals, administrations, policy makers and stakeholders. It is accessible to everyone, including older people and people with disabilities, as it follows the internationally recognized rules on accessibility. The Portal also provides expert users with access to statistical databases relevant to public health. Access to the information needed is possible via a simple theme structure that presents health-related aspects affecting individuals and their environment. Each of the 6 themes leads to its related sub-themes, for example: My Health leads to babies and children, My lifestyle to nutrition, My environment to bio terrorism, Health problem to HIV/AIDS, Influenza, and other infectious diseases or rare diseases, Care for me to patient safety; Health in the EU to programmes, research, prevention and promotion,....The sections on News, major topical Events occurring across Europe and Press Releases give the opportunity to keep up to date and get involved in major decisions and events in the health field at national, cross border and international level. The Portal also makes available Legislative acts adopted by the Community Institutions, and EU Publications in order to provide easy access to the objectives of the European Union and the means it deploys to attain them. Further information: http://ec.europa.eu/health-eu/index_en.htm