President's column: WHO Tallinn Charter: a good promise for public health in Europe * EUPHA office column * The Tallinn Charter: Health Systems for Health and Wealth

Abstract

As I am writing this I have just returned from Tallinn, Estonia, where I participated in the WHO Ministerial Conference on 25–27 June. From EUPHA's point of view, the topic of the meeting was extremely essential: ‘Health Systems, Health and Wealth’. The Conference aimed to disentangle the dynamic relationship between the title concepts and clarify the impact of health systems on health, economic growth and social well-being. For a couple of years, the WHO Regional Office for Europe including the WHO European Office for Health Systems and Policies as well as numerous public health experts have been preparing the Conference, its background documents and the Charter published and discussed at the Conference. One of the preparatory consultations was actually organized at the EUPHA Conference last year in Helsinki. For the first time, EUPHA had also received an official invitation to an official WHO meeting and we had a stand presenting our activities at the Conference exhibition. The 3 days of the Conference offered excellent presentations by top experts. Besides presentations, of particular interest were ministerial panels in which participating ministers from different European countries presented the positions of their governments regarding the Conference theme. The participation in the Conference was extraordinary; exceptionally for WHO meetings the finance ministers were also invited to attend. Unfortunately, not many accepted the invitation according to my knowledge. Moreover, the topic of the meeting had attracted partners from other international health policy actors; the preparation of the conference and Charter had been supported by the European Union, Council of Europe, World and European Investment Banks, OECD, UN Children's Fund and Global Fund. The Conference presentations addressed the topic from various viewpoints, such as social determinants of health, health systems performance assessment, human rights and politics, as well as from technical approaches; how to steward and …