5th European ANME-Symposium "CAM in Europe - wellCAM!"- 2013

Small but successful, challenging, inspiring, calling for action: This description applies to this year’s symposium in Brussels with participants from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.

It looks as though a fresh wind has given us a new voice and more self-confidence: We’ve obtained a clear and positive result for the development of a profile for a CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) profession in Europe on the basis of voluntary self-regulation with the approval of the EU commission. In order to reach this ambitious goal, we founded the “European Committee for a CAM profession”. The committee will start working as early as this fall, initially coordinated by the ANME office.

This year in Brussels, we were able to meet, exchange ideas, work together, learn from each other, but also laugh and celebrate. All of this made the symposium a special experience.

Below you will find a summary of the different presentations: Two EU MEPs had cancelled on short notice, which meant that our round table was composed of: Tina Hausser (FENACO), Ton Nicolai (EUROCAM), Stephen Gordon (ECCH) and Sascha Marschang of the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA).

The discussion focused on two main topics:

Which form of voluntary regulation is best suited for CAM professional profile or many individual CAM specialists?
The second point was the question of whether and how regulation for CAM doctors would differ from regulation of other CAM practitioners.

It became evident that CAM doctors are still subjected to restrictive professional regulations on the one hand and on the other hand are still part of a system that discriminates against them.
Legal practise of CAM in all Council of Europe member states is not possible yet for all CAM practitioners.

Results from the Workshop

Overall goals:

Look at the innate capacity for the preservation of health and recovery from the point of view of relationships and promote them according to the principles of salutogenesis and traditions in order to change people’s awareness of health.

Longterm goal:

More self-confidence for CAM, developing a Europe-wide system of voluntary self-regulation in cooperation with the EU commission and national authorities.

Today’s goal:

Form a strong bond and draft up CAM vocational profiles, potentially based on the “Swiss example”.
The European Committee for a CAM profession was founded on the 26th of September 2013 in Brussels. Several members of ANME and symposium participants from various countries have pledged their support. The “European CAM Act” will be reworked by the new committee.
All speakers and representatives of European and national associations as well as individual participants of the 5th European ANME Symposium agree that it is important to speak with one voice on a political level in order to sustainably shape the future development of CAM in Europe.