About the European Infertility Alliance                                                                                        
                                                                              
The European Infertility Alliance (EIA) was created in 2003 to proved a place for iCSi European members to discuss common interests and share information from the European region.  Soon after, the EIA applied to be a full member of the European Patients' Forum (EPF) of the European Union (EU).  This required us to formalise and create statutes . This formal link has provided valuable opportunities to bring infertility issues to the health agenda of the European Union. 

The EIA has participated in initiatives to educate MEPs about infertility and has also facilitated access to workshops that have allowed European iCSi members to bring a collective voice and strengthen ties with other European associations.  Hana from the Czech Republic has written a report on the EPF meeting she attended in 2008. Some comments from those who have attended can be found here.

In April 2009, our member Rossella Bartolucci from Italy shared exciting new about a great victory for infertile people in their country.  We applaud their vision, determination and commitment which has brought hope to thousands of people in Italy who need medical assistance to have a family!

Dear Sandra,
 
It will be wonderful if you could officially inform the iCSi community that, thanks to the hard work of our association, together with Hera Onlus and Cittadinanzattiva-Toscana (other associations), in cooperation with our lawyers, Marilisa D'Amico, Maria Paola Costantini, Nello Papandrea, Ileana Alesso and Massimo Clara (who actually did the job!) we had a very important victory against Law 40 about ART:

The Constitutional Court, following to our appeal, declared to be against our Constitution the very key point of the law, in Art 14, where it obliges the doctor to create no more than 3 embryos and transfer all of them together, without cryopreservation. So, Italian doctors and patients will again have ART according the best international standards, at least in this point.
 
Thank you!
 
Rossella

Rossella Bartolucci
+393331193705

http://www.sosinfertilita.net

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Download Rossella's presentation to the iCSI meeting in Budapest. 

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The EIA held a meeting in Budapest in Budapest in February 2008. You can see the agenda here .

Exciting resolution from the EU parliament  February 2008

A key objective of iCSi has been to seek opportunities to build strategic alliances, to link with stakeholders to create partnerships for progress so we increase our effective representation of the members of our patient in our home countries.  One of our corporate partners Merck Serono (Patron) has provided the opportunity to work with them in their EU initiatives. Patricia Pellier informed the iCSi delegates about a groundbreaking resolution, passed only the previous day, which recognised infertility as a medical condition, a public health concern and a social problem that affects the demography of European members states.  The resolution called on Members States to ensure the right of couples to universal access to infertility treatment.  The EIA will work with Patricia Pellier and Prof José Luis Valverde to build on this exciting achievement. See p 3 of the Budapest report.