Vision & Principles

Declaration:

The Association for Natural Medicine in Europe e.V. (ANME) operates as a democratic, non-governmental organization. Our mission is based on preserving intangible cultural heritage (ICH), and we are committed to a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary approach to health and health-related politics and dialogue via both national and inter-European engagement.

Vision:

ANME works on behalf of complementary and alternative medicine and traditional naturopathy (CAM) in Europe. We encourage education, discussion, and action to aid in the continued and increased access to CAM. ANME focuses on the well-being of humans and animals, and we do so with an interest to also maintain, sustain, and improve the safety of and standards for our environment, medicines, and planet.

Mission:

• We work to protect CAM in the interest of and continued benefit for the general population.
• We advocate for independent, holistic, preventative healthcare within Europe.
• We maintain and support a salutogenesis—health, healing, and recovery-focused—approaches for humans and animals and the environment.
• We continually evaluate health policies and we offer support for organizations, manufacturers, foundations, representatives of preventative healthcare, and individuals in Europe who are active in the fields of Naturopathy and Traditional Medicine (TM).
• We rely on capacity-building, multi-angle participation, and are united in our common goal of upholding our mission. ANME's general management, extended board, and scientific advisors include the interests of all members and CAM-supporters in their work whenever possible.
• We have a wide-reaching European network, and we welcome active and continued contribution to maintain and represent the interests of members for amendments to and discussion about health-policy positions.
• We work guided by principles of participation and solidarity; we unify via health education and through the support of collegial and cultural milieus in the private and public healthcare sector.
• We acknowledge the continued efforts our voluntary, honorary collaborators, who support the activities of the association. This work adds valuable insight into our work to bring to light developments and potential threats to CAM, the natural medicine profession, and general population as early as possible in order to proactively suggest appropriate solutions.
We are ulmost committed to the recognition, support, and maintenance of complementary, naturopathic, and alternative methods (CAM) and their remedies in Europe, and we continually focus, evaluate, review, and direct our resources to uphold all of our statutory aims.

Guiding Principles:

Important tasks and aims for the social and health sector

1. 
   ANME is consensus-oriented, and altruistically minded. ANME considers CAM a vital intangible cultural heritage (ICH) that has both significant value and enormous potential for future development.
   ANME works to bridge the gap and unite vital historical-cultural and experience-based traditions of the past with the present-day scientific, national, and global political society and systems.
   ANME maintains and continually strengthens contacts with political decision-makers, scientists, practitioners, patient representatives, as well as members of the dietary and nutritional supplement, pharmaceutical, and food industries. Such cooperation is essential for the realization of comprehensive tasks in Europe.
   ANME ensures the continued vocalization of opinions and concerns about current policies, practices, etc., through active public relations work, thereby arming our members and the general public with crucial updates and information to enable better healthcare decision-making.
   ANME works collaboratively, supports solidarity arrangements, and demands accountability from those responsible for creating health policy.
   ANME strongly advocates transparency and the mutual exchange of information for the greater good.
   ANME is mindful of ecological threats and impact, of humane and animal-friendly agriculture, of good manufacturing practices, as well as of cultural anthropological aspects; ANME believes that this interdisciplinary approach and work both benefits and can help preserve our planet.
2. 
   ANME supports CAM-methods and remedies in Europe, and ANME believes in the ad-vancement and further education on both national and European policy and legislation issues. ANME fundamentally commits to the collection, expansion, and the deepening of knowledge and experience with CAM.
   ANME brings important topics of interest within the healthcare and medical societies to the forefront of public discussion. ANME maintains transparency in our work within the political climate of health topics as well as in discussions of the role of CAM in Europe.
   ANME aligns our work in health education with the mandates regarding health policy presented in the Ottawa-Charter (WHO 1986) and further outlined the Beijing declaration (WHO 2008).
   ANME advocates on behalf of the interests of CAM-users and supports professional and expert associations.
   ANME is committed to preserving a wide-variety of modalities, healing methods, and to ensuring each patient and or persons interested in health and healthcare options has ample choice in his or her therapy.