European Public Health News * President's column * EUPHA office column * Message from the WHO Regional Director for Europe * 'Ex-Smokers are Unstoppable': a new campaign to solve an old problem * European Public Health Conference

Abstract

In this European public health news, the focus is on capacity building, within and beyond our network of public health professionals using old and new communication methods. Communication on health financing (Jakab), tobacco (Spanou) or communication in itself (Zeegers) is an essential part of European public health. Communication should be tailored to the audience you are trying to reach, keeping in mind that the pragmatic and creative solutions should reach beyond your usual network. In addition, there are some excellent pragmatic and creative examples in the contributions below. # President’s column {#article-title-2} EUPHA has two big events in a year. The most important is—of course—the European Public Health Conference, this year in Malta. This is where we meet our members, present our annual report and decide on the activities in the year to come. This is where public health in Europe is presented in research, practice, policy and training. This is where European public health is created, encouraged and further developed. The conference creates a positive boost for EUPHA, a sense of belonging together and a general European public health feeling. The second event is smaller, but also very important. It is the June meeting, where we combine the planning of the conference, the Executive Council meeting and the Section Council meeting. The nice thing about the June meeting is that it has a relaxed and cosy atmosphere. In fact, it is the perfect opportunity to spend several days together with key people in our organization, without everybody being busy with conference activities. This year, our June meeting was co-organized with the Maltese Association of Public Health Medicine. The weather in Malta was beautiful, the location as well, and this all created the EUPHA feeling. In this setting, we managed to organize an intense brainstorming on our activities and on our future. The Maltese …