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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

European conference on improving palliative care held in Belgrade

Belgrade, 22 October 2005

The Serbian Ministry of Health announced today that on October 20 and 21, a European conference on improving palliative care was held in Belgrade, bearing the motto: “Less suffering, more dignity, better quality of life”, and at which conclusions of the draft Belgrade Statements were adopted.

The conference was organised by the European Council and the Serbian Ministry of Health and was attended by nearly 300 experts from 46 member countries of the European Council. It aimed to promote an all-inclusive model of active care of patients throughout the course of their lives, with respect to the dignity and human rights of every person.

The framework for the conference was provided by the European Council’s Recommendation (Rec(2003)24) on the organisation of palliative care and was opened by Speaker of the Serbian Parliament Predrag Markovic, Serbian Minister of Health Tomica Milosavljevic, Montenegrin Minister of Health Miodrag Pavlic and general director of the European Council’s European Committee for Social Cohesion Alexander Vladicenko.

The conference was held in order to further improve the system of palliative care of those suffering from serious illness and provided the opportunity to initiate an organisation of special staff working in this field. The decisions of the conference were made uniform according to the European Council’s Recommendation (Rec(2003)24).

Representatives of the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Finland, Denmark and Poland presented the current status of palliative care in their respective countries. Presentations at the conference also covered many topics concerning the reduction of pain and suffering and relevant European laws, while participants had the opportunity to acquire specific epidemiological data and information on organisation of units for palliative care.