On December 18, 2003, the European Parliament approved a resolution on the rights of people with multiple sclerosis, an important achievement for the 400,000 people affected by MS living in European countries. Among the strategic points of the resolution is the call for a European Code of Good Practice, to be adopted in the different Member States.

The Recommendations on Rehabilitation Services for Persons with MS in Europe, an initiative of the European Multiple Sclerosis Platform (EMSP), with the endorsement of Rehabilitation in Multiple Sclerosis (RIMS), is an important step toward achieving this goal of Europe-wide good practice.

The Recommendations are the final result of an intense process that was begun in 2003 by the EMSP with the involvement of their membership, 29 European MS societies, and the support and contributions of individual RIMS members.

The first step to establishing Recommendations on Rehabilitation Services was to assess the current availability of rehabilitation services across Europe. National MS societies in 15 member countries of the EU, ten countries that entered the EU in May 2004, and eight extra-EU countries participated in the survey.

The survey included questions on several aspects of health organisation specifically related to rehabilitation, including healthcare system structures, specific legislation for people with disabilities, the availability of information on MS within healthcare structures and different rehabilitation services.

In autumn 2003, a panel of 18 professionals and experts from both Western and Eastern European countries, including individual RIMS members, drafted a document. This draft was then discussed at an international seminar attended by professionals and officers representing rehabilitation centres and MS societies from 23 European countries, before a final version was produced.

The EMSP assumes the important responsibility for the dissemination of the Recommendations to all its Member Societies, who, in turn, will make the document available to people with MS and professionals. Most importantly, the Recommendations are specifically addressed to policy makers who have the opportunity and the responsibility for responding to the needs and requests of all citizens living with MS.

It is the intention of the EMSP that this document be utilised as a lobbying tool at national and European levels. The Recommendations establish standards for rehabilitation services that people with MS have the right to access, regardless of nationality.

The Recommendations were presented by the EMSP during the MS Information Hour in the European Parliament on October 20, 2004.

For a copy of the recommendations, please contact Christoph Thalheim at ms-ineurope@pandora.be