Message from the PresidentDear members, The first three months of 2012 have been a very busy and successful time for ECOO: we started the year at Opti Mu-nich to sign our cooperation agreement with the Special Olympics International Movement and create a partner-ship that will help to bring vision care services and pre-scription eyewear to more athletes with intellectual disa-bilities. One week later, on 18 January, our French member UDO, organised a high-level hearing at the French Assem-blée Nationale at which ECOO was given the opportunity to present the key findings of the Wasem Study and, in so doing, support UDO’s laudable efforts to develop the profession in France. As shown by the Wasem Study and as highlighted during the lively discussion, the structural challenges for the primary eye care sector in France are considerable. In order to tackle these in the years ahead, strengthening the role and competencies of the ‘opticien-optométriste’ should be part of the solution. On 24 January, led by ECOO Vice President Julie-Anne Lit-tle, ECOO’s dedicated Working Group to develop guide-lines on optometric and optical services held its inaugural meeting in London. With the ECOO Secretariat established in Brussels for a year now, we have greatly increased our activities at the EU-level: • ECOOisactivelyinvolvedintheon-goingmodernisation

of the Professional Qualifications Directive, holding sepa-rate meetings with the key decision-makers in the Euro-pean Commission (Mr. Jürgen Tiedje) and the European Parliament (Ms. Bernadette Vergnaud MEP).

• In February, ECOO, together with EUROM1, presented

our joint report on “Driver Vision Screening” to officials of the European Commission, opening the door for future cooperation to ensure better assessment of drivers’ vi-sion across Europe.

• The uncertainty around the current classification ofFluorescein strips and its use in Europe was addressed directly in a meeting with experts from the European Commission and ECOO in March which should form the basis for a future reevaluation and solution to this issue.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of the European Diploma accreditation team, the assessment of the institutions to be accredited as pilots has now been completed and the final report will be presented at the upcoming General Assembly.Finally, I would like to thank all ECOO members for their co-operation in answering to the various ECOO surveys. These are an important element in the exchange of information in ECOO and not only provide valuable help to fellow members but also allows for a Europe-wide perspective on a number of important topics! The results of the eye care of children survey will be presented in the Professional Services Committee in Dublin.You will find more details on these activities in this news-letter and of course during our next General Assembly on 19-21 April 2012 in Dublin!

I am looking forward to seeing all of you in Dublin!

Armin Duddek

1

Newsletter / Volume 6, Issue 1 February 2011

Message from the PresidentDear members,

At the beginning of the new year I would like to give you a brief over-view of our priorities for 2011 and the projects that ECOO will be in-volved in throughout the coming months.

This year offers a number of opportunities to make significant progress in working towards a higher degree of harmonization of our profession and of the education in optometry and optics in Europe.

One core element for ECOO to achieve our goals is to facilitate and in-tensify the ongoing exchange between ECOO members and assist each other whenever regulatory challenges and opportunities at national level arise. In addition, and with the newly established Sec-retariat in Brussels, ECOO will put a strong focus this year on lobbying and outreach activities at the EU level.

Our upcoming ECOO meetings in Prague and Athens (please note the change of date) will serve as important platforms to discuss the progress of our work and define future activities. In this context, I would like to express once more my gratefulness to Thomas Truckenbrot, Jochen Goerdt and the team from the ZVA for making the General Assembly in Dresden in October 2010 such a great success.

Another important element for ECOO in 2011 is to strengthen and expand our membership basis. For many years, France has unfortunately been a blank spot on the map of ECOO members. One of our main aims for this year therefore is to welcome France back in ECOO again. Following a number of highly constructive meetings during the past months in Paris, I hope to be able to communicate some positive news to you on this in the near future.

In addition, ECOO is embarking on a number of important and challenging flagship projects in 2011. I would like to mention in particular:

• ECOO’s reinforced advocacy efforts in the field of Driving & Vision, with the aim of replacing antiquated ‘number/licence plate test’ of drivers’ vision with an appropriate Snellen-based assess-ment in all EU Member States

• the comparative health economic study of the delivery of primary eye care in Germany, France and the United Kingdom (Wasem Study) which is expected to be completed in May

• the submission of an ECOO response to the European Commission’s consultation on the Profes-sional Qualifications Directive

• the launch of a proposal to the European standardisation body CEN for the development of a standard on optometric and optical services

• the roll out of the accreditation of schools for the European Diploma so as to have an increasing number of school diplomas and European diplomas awarded at the same time

I am looking forward to advancing on these issues in close cooperation with all of you throughout 2011!

Armin Duddek

Inside this Newsletter• MessagefromthePresident• ECOOdevelopsguidelineson optometricandopticalservices

• UDOandECOOpresentWasemstudy totheFrenchAssembléeNationale

• ECOOandSpecialOlympicsBringHighQuality EyeCaretoAthleteswithIntellectualDisabilities

• EuropeanYearforActiveAgeingand SolidaritybetweenGenerations2012

• CountryNews:- Germany

• VisionandDriving:- ECOO meets European Commission on Vision and Driving

• RegulatoryUpdate- RecognitionofProfessionalQualifications- ECOO meets European Commission on Fluorescein- European Commission adopts health warning: “smoking

increases the risk of blindness” • ArminDuddekreceivestheVDCOOptometryAward2012• UpdatefromtheEuropeanAcademyof OptometryandOptics

• Advancenotice:Malaga2013

ECOONewsletterVolume7/Issue1 April 2012

1

1

Newsletter / Volume 6, Issue 1 February 2011

Message from the PresidentDear members,

At the beginning of the new year I would like to give you a brief over-view of our priorities for 2011 and the projects that ECOO will be in-volved in throughout the coming months.

This year offers a number of opportunities to make significant progress in working towards a higher degree of harmonization of our profession and of the education in optometry and optics in Europe.

One core element for ECOO to achieve our goals is to facilitate and in-tensify the ongoing exchange between ECOO members and assist each other whenever regulatory challenges and opportunities at national level arise. In addition, and with the newly established Sec-retariat in Brussels, ECOO will put a strong focus this year on lobbying and outreach activities at the EU level.

Our upcoming ECOO meetings in Prague and Athens (please note the change of date) will serve as important platforms to discuss the progress of our work and define future activities. In this context, I would like to express once more my gratefulness to Thomas Truckenbrot, Jochen Goerdt and the team from the ZVA for making the General Assembly in Dresden in October 2010 such a great success.

Another important element for ECOO in 2011 is to strengthen and expand our membership basis. For many years, France has unfortunately been a blank spot on the map of ECOO members. One of our main aims for this year therefore is to welcome France back in ECOO again. Following a number of highly constructive meetings during the past months in Paris, I hope to be able to communicate some positive news to you on this in the near future.

In addition, ECOO is embarking on a number of important and challenging flagship projects in 2011. I would like to mention in particular:

• ECOO’s reinforced advocacy efforts in the field of Driving & Vision, with the aim of replacing antiquated ‘number/licence plate test’ of drivers’ vision with an appropriate Snellen-based assess-ment in all EU Member States

• the comparative health economic study of the delivery of primary eye care in Germany, France and the United Kingdom (Wasem Study) which is expected to be completed in May

• the submission of an ECOO response to the European Commission’s consultation on the Profes-sional Qualifications Directive

• the launch of a proposal to the European standardisation body CEN for the development of a standard on optometric and optical services

• the roll out of the accreditation of schools for the European Diploma so as to have an increasing number of school diplomas and European diplomas awarded at the same time

I am looking forward to advancing on these issues in close cooperation with all of you throughout 2011!

Armin Duddek

UDO and ECOO present Wasem study to the French Assemblée Nationale On 18 January 2012, ECOO and its French member Union des Opticiens (UDO) presented the “Comparative Analysis of Delivery of Primary Eye Care in Three European Countries”

by Professor Wasem to deputies and senators in the Assemblée Nationale in Paris. The comparison between the primary eye care systems in Germany, the UK and France has been presented.

In particular, attention to the demo-graphic challenges that France faces with its current professional set-up has been pointed out. The study has been generally well received by participants.

2

ECOO develops guidelines on optometric and optical servicesIn the absence of a European Stand-ard on optometric and optical ser-vices, ECOO decided to draw-up a set of guidelines to define best practices and a common understanding with-in ECOO of what a future European standard should entail. For this pur-pose, a dedicated working-group has

been set-up under the leadership of Dr Julie-Anne Little, President-elect of ECOO, which met for the first time in January 2012 in London. At this meet-ing the scope of the guidelines as well as a common understanding in terms of terminology and content has now been agreed. It was also agreed that

the objective for the ECOO guideline is to serve as a template for optome-trists and opticians to deliver clinically safe and effective primary eye care services to patients in the commu-nity. Further details will be presented at the General Assembly meeting in Dublin on 21 April 2012.

3

Country News – Germany Ophthalmologistsfailtosueagainsttrainingforopticianstobecomeoptometrists

On 20 March 2012, the Higher Ad-ministrative Court of Saxony in Ger-many has rejected the claim by oph-thalmologists against the Chamber of Handicraft in Dresden, seeking to prohibit training for opticians to be-come optometrists. The legitimacy of the training as well as its effects

on the professional freedom of oph-thalmologists has been the underly-ing arguments of the plaintiff. In its justification, the Court stated that the fear by ophthalmologists to see their income diminished due to op-ticians carrying out optometric ac-tivities is not protected by the basic law. Furthermore, protection against competition cannot be granted ei-ther. ECOO congratulates the impor-tant work of the ZVA that allows op-

ticians in Germany to continue their education on the highest level.

European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 20122012 is the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Gen-erations. The year is intended to im-prove quality of life and raise aware-ness of the contribution that older people make to society. It also seeks

to encourage policymakers and stakeholder to engage in activities that support this initiative and cre-ate opportunities. In light of the im-portance vision plays in active age-ing, ECOO and its members are well

placed to contribute to this initiative. All existing initiatives can be viewed here and may serve as source for in-spiration for ECOO members.

ECOO and Special Olympics Bring High Quality Eye Care to Athletes with Intellectual Disabilities Special Olympics International and ECOO signed a memorandum of understanding on Saturday 14 Janu-ary 2012, creating a partnership that will bring needed vision care ser-vices and prescription eyewear to more athletes with intellectual dis-abilities, as well as build increased public awareness as to the spe-cific health care needs of this often marginalized population. Special Olympics will join ECOO in the next

General Assembly in Dublin 2012 to perform a demo-screening and to

present its work to the conference attendees.

1

Newsletter / Volume 6, Issue 1 February 2011

Message from the PresidentDear members,

At the beginning of the new year I would like to give you a brief over-view of our priorities for 2011 and the projects that ECOO will be in-volved in throughout the coming months.

This year offers a number of opportunities to make significant progress in working towards a higher degree of harmonization of our profession and of the education in optometry and optics in Europe.

One core element for ECOO to achieve our goals is to facilitate and in-tensify the ongoing exchange between ECOO members and assist each other whenever regulatory challenges and opportunities at national level arise. In addition, and with the newly established Sec-retariat in Brussels, ECOO will put a strong focus this year on lobbying and outreach activities at the EU level.

Our upcoming ECOO meetings in Prague and Athens (please note the change of date) will serve as important platforms to discuss the progress of our work and define future activities. In this context, I would like to express once more my gratefulness to Thomas Truckenbrot, Jochen Goerdt and the team from the ZVA for making the General Assembly in Dresden in October 2010 such a great success.

Another important element for ECOO in 2011 is to strengthen and expand our membership basis. For many years, France has unfortunately been a blank spot on the map of ECOO members. One of our main aims for this year therefore is to welcome France back in ECOO again. Following a number of highly constructive meetings during the past months in Paris, I hope to be able to communicate some positive news to you on this in the near future.

In addition, ECOO is embarking on a number of important and challenging flagship projects in 2011. I would like to mention in particular:

• ECOO’s reinforced advocacy efforts in the field of Driving & Vision, with the aim of replacing antiquated ‘number/licence plate test’ of drivers’ vision with an appropriate Snellen-based assess-ment in all EU Member States

• the comparative health economic study of the delivery of primary eye care in Germany, France and the United Kingdom (Wasem Study) which is expected to be completed in May

• the submission of an ECOO response to the European Commission’s consultation on the Profes-sional Qualifications Directive

• the launch of a proposal to the European standardisation body CEN for the development of a standard on optometric and optical services

• the roll out of the accreditation of schools for the European Diploma so as to have an increasing number of school diplomas and European diplomas awarded at the same time

I am looking forward to advancing on these issues in close cooperation with all of you throughout 2011!

Armin Duddek

4

Vision and Driving ECOOmeetsEuropeanCommis-siononVisionandDriving

Following the publication of the ECOO, EUROM1 and EUROMCON-TACT report on “Driver Vision Screening” last year as well as the adoption of the European Parlia-ment report on Road Safety let byMEP Dieter-Lebrecht Koch in Sep-tember 2011, representatives from ECOO, Mark Nevin and Ulrich Adam, aswellasEUROMI,BertranddeLimémet with the European Commission to discuss our main concerns about the Driving Licence Directive and its implementation by Member States.

As the Driver Vision Screening re-port indicated, a number of Mem-ber States continue to use ‘number plate tests’ as an assessment of visu-al acuity. Evidence that this method does not meet the EU minimum

standards (for visual acuity set out in Directive 2009/113/EC) has been presented to the European Commis-sion. In this context ECOO, EUROMI and EUROMCONTACThave called

on the European Commission to ensure better assessment of drivers’ vision in Europe. ECOO will remain in close contact with the European

Commission to address this short-coming and to ensure that its views are duly considered. Further details will be shared during the upcoming Economic Committee meeting in Dublin on 20 April 2012.ECOO hopes its efforts will con-tribute to the Commission’s aim of reducing the number of deaths on Europe’s road by half by 2020. Ac-cording to figures published by the European Commission in Mach 2012, progress in cutting road fa-talities significantly slowed last year. From an average reduction of 6% over the past decade, road deaths have fallen by only 2% in 2011. In various countries the number of road deaths increased including in countries with strong safety records such as Germany and Sweden. The press release published by the Euro-pean Commission on these figures is available here.

Regulatory UpdateRecognitionof ProfessionalQualifications

On 19 December 2011 the European Commission has adopted the pro-posal to modernise the Professional Qualifications Directive (PQD), taking into account the responses of the public consultation to which ECOO responded. In February 2012 ECOO attended the European Commission’s stakeholder meeting, which provided interested parties with further explanations on the proposal. Of particular interest

to ECOO is the introduction of com-mon training frameworks, which consist of the harmonization of train-ing on the basis of a common set of knowledge, skills and competences. Furthermore, ECOO met with Ms Bernadette Vergnaud, MEP (French, Social-Democrats), who is the rap-porteur of the PQD in the Euro-pean Parliament. ECOO presented the challenges and opportunities of the profession in the context of the modernization of the PQD and will closely follow future develop-ments. The PQD is currently under

discussion in the European Parlia-ment with a view of being adopted in early 2013.

ECOOmeetsEuropean CommissiononFluorescein

Fluorescein is widely used by optome-trists across Europe in eye examinations and is in particular an essential device in the fitting of contact lenses. Tradi-tionally it has been considered to be a medical device in Europe, however the definitions of ‘medical device’ and of ‘medicinal product for human use’ are

5

Armin Duddek receives the VDCO Optometry Award 2012 On the occasion of this year’s VDCO (Vereinigung Deutscher Contactlin-senspezialisten und Optometristen) spring meeting “Optometrie 12” on 23 March 2012, ECOO President Armin Duddek received the Op-tometry Award 2012. In their praise for Mr Duddek, the President of the VDCO Prof. Dr. Manuel Fraatz and Dr Wolfgang Cagnolati, Immediate Past President of ECOO, lauded the merits of the ECOO President in the opto-metric field in the German speaking

area and across Europe. Armin Dud-dek has been President of the SBAO (Schweizerischen Berufsverbandes für Augenoptik und Optometrie) since 2001 and the Swiss delegate for ECOO since 2003. He was praised for his active contribution to vari-ous international associations and committees and for introducing the compulsory continuing education for SBAO members. During his ECOO presidency he achieved the return of France as a member, the launch of

the Wasem study and he is actively driving forward the accreditation project as well as topics such as Vi-sion and Driving and Fluorescein.

provided by EU legislation, which have been revised over the years. In this context, Fluorescein strips are considered a borderline product, which means that no straightforward classification is possible. To clarify the matter for Member States, a non-bind-ing guidance document drawn-up by the European Commission and Mem-ber States recommends that fluores-cein products are classified as medici-nal products. This recommendation has led a num-ber of countries to enforce this clas-sification, which has caused major supply problems across Europe and uncertainty for optometrists to use fluorescein strips under the new clas-sification. With the aim of changing this new status quo and improving the situation for optometrists across Europe, ECOO has met with the Euro-pean Commission to present this issue.

The borderline working group of the European Commission will meet in May and ECOO actively pursues the in-clusion of Fluorescein on the agenda.

EuropeanCommissionadoptshealthwarning:“smoking increasestheriskofblindness”

New scientific evidence on the health effects of tobacco use and the ben-efits of effective tobacco labelling has emerged since the adoption of Direc-tive 2001/37/EC (on the approximation of the laws, regulations and admin-istrative provisions of the Member States concerning the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco prod-ucts). The evidence for a causal link be-tween smoking and visual impairment

has been one factor that led the Euro-pean Commission to revise the health warnings set out in the same Directive (Annex I). In March 2012, the European Commission has therefore adopted a number of new health warnings in-cluding “smoking increases the risk of blindness” which will in future be printed on tobacco products.The European vision charity sector ledby theRoyalNational InstituteofBlind People (RNIB) from theUK hasbeen lobbying in partnership with representatives from ophthalmology, to convince the European Commis-sion and EU governments to intro-duce this new sight loss warning on tobacco packets since 2006, and has since called for timely implementation across the EU. Member States have until 2014 to intro-duce the new written health warnings on tobacco products. ECOO encour-ages its members to closely monitor the implementation of the directive in their respective countries and to join forces locally with the rest of the eye care sector to ensure the timely imple-mentation.

1

Newsletter / Volume 6, Issue 1 February 2011

Message from the PresidentDear members,

At the beginning of the new year I would like to give you a brief over-view of our priorities for 2011 and the projects that ECOO will be in-volved in throughout the coming months.

This year offers a number of opportunities to make significant progress in working towards a higher degree of harmonization of our profession and of the education in optometry and optics in Europe.

One core element for ECOO to achieve our goals is to facilitate and in-tensify the ongoing exchange between ECOO members and assist each other whenever regulatory challenges and opportunities at national level arise. In addition, and with the newly established Sec-retariat in Brussels, ECOO will put a strong focus this year on lobbying and outreach activities at the EU level.

Our upcoming ECOO meetings in Prague and Athens (please note the change of date) will serve as important platforms to discuss the progress of our work and define future activities. In this context, I would like to express once more my gratefulness to Thomas Truckenbrot, Jochen Goerdt and the team from the ZVA for making the General Assembly in Dresden in October 2010 such a great success.

Another important element for ECOO in 2011 is to strengthen and expand our membership basis. For many years, France has unfortunately been a blank spot on the map of ECOO members. One of our main aims for this year therefore is to welcome France back in ECOO again. Following a number of highly constructive meetings during the past months in Paris, I hope to be able to communicate some positive news to you on this in the near future.

In addition, ECOO is embarking on a number of important and challenging flagship projects in 2011. I would like to mention in particular:

• ECOO’s reinforced advocacy efforts in the field of Driving & Vision, with the aim of replacing antiquated ‘number/licence plate test’ of drivers’ vision with an appropriate Snellen-based assess-ment in all EU Member States

• the comparative health economic study of the delivery of primary eye care in Germany, France and the United Kingdom (Wasem Study) which is expected to be completed in May

• the submission of an ECOO response to the European Commission’s consultation on the Profes-sional Qualifications Directive

• the launch of a proposal to the European standardisation body CEN for the development of a standard on optometric and optical services

• the roll out of the accreditation of schools for the European Diploma so as to have an increasing number of school diplomas and European diplomas awarded at the same time

I am looking forward to advancing on these issues in close cooperation with all of you throughout 2011!

Armin Duddek

6

Update from the European Academy of Optometry and Optics Dublin2012

Delegates from 29 countries across Europe have already booked their place at the Academy’s next an-nual conference taking place lat-er this month in Dublin, Ireland. The three-day conference, running from 20 to 22 April 2012, will feature keynote lectures from Professor Pa-blo Artal, University of Murcia, Spain, and Dr Kathryn Saunders, University of Ulster, UK, as well as discussion forums, case studies, academic and research sessions, special interest groups and over 70 poster presen-tations.Some tickets are also still available for the ECCO Spring Meeting and

exciting workshops hosted by clini-cal experts at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Don’t miss out! Book your place in the next few days by calling Ivy Broadhead, Academy Administrator, on +44 (0) 20 7766 4385 or at admin@eaoo.info.

Votingopensfor BoardofTrusteeselection

Voting has begun in the Academy’s election to fill two places on our Board of Trustees.The nominees are:Category 1 - Education Organisation• DrEllenSvarverud,BuskerudUni-

versity College, Norway

• ProfessorSvatoplukSynek,StAnne’sHospital,CzechRepublic

Category 4 - Individual Practitioner• DavidBerkow(Israel)• GerhardGschweidl(Austria)• LilianaStankova(Bulgaria)

If you are eligible to vote, you can do so by fax until Thursday 12 April, or by casting your vote at our confer-ence in Dublin. A ballot box will be open at the conference from 8am - 9.30am on Saturday 21 April 2011. All election documents, including nominee biographies and ballot pa-pers, are available to download from the members’ area of our website at www.eaoo.info.

Advance notice: Malaga 2013 The Academy’s conference next year is set to take place in Malaga, Spain, from 19-21 April 2013. Please make a note of this date in your diary. More information will be available later in the year.

NewsletterECOO SponsorsThe Newsletters are sent to ECOO’s

members and contacts via e-mail. Please inform us of any additions to the mailing list or of staff changes in your respective organisations. Should you have any news or updates which may be of interest to ECOO members, please contact Fabienne Eckert or Ul-rich Adam at the ECOO Secretariat: E-mail: secretariat@ecoo.infoTelephone: +32 (0)2 739 16 15