| European Medical Students' Association | |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1991 |
| Type | International Organization |
| Headquarters | Brussels, Belgium |
| Official languages | English |
| President | Borislav Manev |
| Website | www.emsa-europe.eu |
The European Medical Students' Association (EMSA) is a non-governmental non-profit organisation for medical students focusing on medical education, ethics and science in Europe.
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EMSA was founded in Brussels in 1991. It integrates medical students in Europe through activities organized for and by medical students and representing them in Brussels. In EMSA medical faculties are members, not the individual countries. Since the foundation of EMSA many medical faculties throughout Europe enrolled with EMSA. It currently unites 62 medical faculties from 19 countries across Europe. EMSA seeks to improve the health and the quality of care of the citizens of Europe by acting as a conduit for increased interaction and sharing of knowledge between European medical students in the areas of medical education, ethics, science and European integration.
EMSA is an associated organisation of the CPME Standing Committee of European Doctors.
The objectives of EMSA, which has no lucrative aims whatsoever, are:
The need for a truly representative organisation for individual European Medical Students: One of the main concerns in organizing the structure in which any European Medical Student could directly become member of the organisation individually, was the need for an organisation that represented European Medical Students in a direct and democratic way. EMSA's inception was based on giving the individual European medical student a direct voice and potential in European Medical Education Matters. Any other association at that time only represented medical students very indirectly. It was felt that an it was far too difficult for a student to have a meaning, impact or induce a change through a federation that represent other federations, which in their turn represented associations, of which becoming a member was not always as simple in every country. Also, no other association represented specifically Geographic (not political) Europe. IFMSA, by nature and organizational structure at that time a federation of federations, has come to appreciate EMSA's pure structure and the empowerment it allows to the individual European Students, and has thus cooperated with EMSA closely keeping the European Medical Student in mind, and close at heart.
A couple of the activities EMSA organizes are: Teddy Bear Hospital, Twinning Project, Eurotalk, Movies and Medicine, EMSA Summer Schools, EMS Council, World Healthcare Students' Symposium, and JEMSA (the scientific publication of EMSA).
In 1990 the idea to create a European Medical Students' Association was discussed during a symposium for medical students from all European countries organized by students of the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), Belgium. A working group was created and in the summer 1991 the European Medical Students' Association was founded in Brussels. Students of Leuven at that time chose not to participate in the official upstart of EMSA, because headquarters were established in Brussels. The first and official founding EMSA General Assembly was under the patronage of Baudouin I, the King of Belgium and was financially supported by the European Community's ERASMUS programme. The statutes were officially established and published under Belgian law in 1991.
Each year EMSA delegates meet at the "National Coordinators & Enthousiasts Meeting" (NCM) in the spring, and the "General Assembly" in the fall.
The main executive body of the European Medical Students' Association is the EMSA European Board (EEB). In the fall of each year EEB is elected during the General Assenbly. The EEB is composed of the president, vice-president, general-secretary, treasurer, several directors, co-ordinators and liaison officers.
EMSA is recognized as a regional representative of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations IFMSA. EMSA, being a young organisation founded in 1991, as well as IFMSA, founded in 1951, very early recognized the importance of cooperation to reach the best for European Medical Students.
Shortly after the foundation of EMSA, IFMSA established a ‘Working Committee on EMSA’ that immediately started to work in 1991/1992.
In 1992 the First Barcelona Agreement was signed between the two Executive Boards in which both associations agreed to work more closely together, the agreement officially lasted until 1994. Apart from the general agreement there were some very concrete benefits for both associations: IFMSA for example could benefit from EMSA in countries where IFMSA did not exist at that time such as Belgium or United Kingdom; EMSA on the other hand could much more easier get in contact with other big associations such as WHO or WHO Europe.
Nevertheless a few years later much remained be improved between the cooperation of the Executive Boards of the Associations and at the same time between members in some countries, some disagreements lead to a highly unproductive situation that made it difficult to achieve the main goal: best offers and conditions for Medical Students in Europe.
To overcome this situation, in 1995, Aleksander Micevski, IFMSA President, and Gunther Eysenbach, EMSA Vice-President, signed the Second Barcelona Agreement, that should be valid for 5 years. Again apart from general agreements concerning communication and cooperation, mutual invitations for each others meetings were agreed on, a total access for members to each others projects, conferences, events, etc. and what was very important as a sign to the members throughout Europe: the boards encouraged their members to share office facilities at the faculty, to organise joint social programs for events taking place at the same time, such as IFMSA exchange and EMSA Eurotalk in the same city, just to name a few examples of synergistic effects.
Another very important step for EMSA was also fixed in this agreement: IFMSA, focussing on more and more on regionalisation, recognised EMSA as IFMSA regional office for Europe and delegated European related issues and contacts to EMSA. The second Barcelona agreement stipulated that EMSA was allowed to take over relations to European organisations such as CP, PWG, using IFMSA logo as well in the heading of official letters; it became self-evident that two international organisations representing medical students all over Europe had to speak with one voice towards external organisations. At the same time it was stressed once again that none of the associations would lose its independence.
Only one year later, the Presidents of both associations, Jacco Veldhuyzen for EMSA and Luisa Brumana for IFMSA, felt the need to sign a short term plan of action, determining some details concerning representatives on meetings, written reports, and official correspondence.
At the same time it was agreed on working out a long term strategy for the future based on former agreements.
Four years later, in 2000, Nick Schneider for EMSA together with Jacco Veldhuyzen, joint Liaison Officer towards CP/PWG, and Sanjeeb Sapkota for IFMSA started working out a new agreement which is still valid today: the Porto Agreement.
This document was discussed at IFMSA MM in Malta 2001, then discussed and passed at EMSA Extraordinary General Assembly in Porto April 2001 and finally accepted by the plenary at IFMSA AM 2001 in Aalborg.
The Porto Agreement again stresses the cooperation between the two organisations, each keeping her strengths and advantages without any contraproductive competition. EMSA became officially IFMSA regional partner for Europe. A main point of the document is the communication that is from now on ensured by Liaison Officers that are appointed and related to their Executive Boards, providing them with information keeping their eyes on mailing lists, and being able to mediate in case of unclairifed situations or problems. The Boards should from now on officially support each other to expand their membership, to promote cooperation on national and local level, in addition two representatives will be invited to participate in General Assemblies of the other. The Porto Agreement, signed by Nick Schneider and Marta Ocampo Fontangordo for IFMSA is the basis of the actual cooperation and will be valid until 2006.
In the additional Jena Agreement from October 2002, drafted after talks between Joel Kammeyer for IFMSA and the EMSA President Hrvoje Vrazic, and later on Kristina Oegaard for IFMSA that attended the EMSA General Assembly in Jena, Germany to sign the agreement. It describes in detail the appointment and function of joint Liaison Officers to the Standing Committee of European Doctors CP and the Permanent Working Group of European Doctors PWG as well as to WHO Europe. Both Liaison Officers are appointed by the EMSA Executive Board, which is in a way responsible for them, on the other hand the Liaison Officers have the duty to represent and to report to the other organisation as well, details can be looked at the agreement itself.
The whole functioning Liaison Officer system combined with additional contacts between the Executive Boards and the Committees such as for Medical Education for example ensures the actual cooperation of the two associations. Nevertheless to avoid a steady state both Executive Boards as well as each EMSA or IFMSA member, each medical student should activeley promote and realise this cooperation: at local level through joint activities, at national level through joint meetings for example or a Liaison Officer system as well and at international level through exchanging experiences and opening our minds.
The Porto and Jena Agreements expired in 2006. Both Executive Boards were very keen to continue cooperation and the discussions resulted in the so-called European Partnership Agreement, which was adopted at the IFMSA March Meeting in Mandurah, Australia, thereafter signed by Ahmed Ali, IFMSA President, and Jacob Gren, IFMSA Regional Coordinator for Europe and Central Asia. The Agreement was adopted by the EMSA General Assembly in Ankara and signed by EMSA President Daniel Keszthelyi and Students' Organisations' Liaison Officer Vera van Houten.
All over Europe there are students’ associations that work actively at a local level defending the interest of their students, without having a European body voicing the concerns and defending the rights of European Medical Students. In 2004, EMSA started the European Medical Students’ Council in London. One of EMSA’s most important aims with this project is to improve the cooperation and communication within the medical students in Europe. The EMS Council meets annually in a different European city.
The EMS Council main objectives are: