POLITICO Europe's Chief Policy Correspondent, author of EU Influence newsletter, host of the EU Confidential podcast; politics geek and professional gossip
Even Brussels fixtures are fragile. When I first started covering health policy in Brussels, the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) was one of the most respected NGOs in the sector, pressuring the industry on drug prices and the Commission on superbugs. Yet this year alone, the NGO has lost all but two of its board members, its president, treasurer and 14 out of its 15 expert advisers amid bullying and nepotism allegations. “The negative impact on EPHA’s credibility is palpable, whether at meetings in Brussels, Copenhagen or Geneva,” said one person working in European health policy with deep knowledge of EPHA. Read more from Mari Eccles. https://lnkd.in/eJsKRwfw
In my time at EPHA, the director/Secretariat General was not insulting previous Board members by saying that EPHA was nothing during their tenure, was polite and respectful as to answer emails from members and advisers... When the focus is on raising an unseen level of funding for the NGO, rather than on the human beings that constitute(d) that NGO, you know that indeed, there is something broken in the system.
I can’t speak to the facts, but society needs the voice of organisations like EPHA, and it’s a loss for everyone if their voice gets tarnished.
I disliked writing this, but had to bring to light that toxicity and discrimination appear to be endemic in Brussels orgs: https://www.linkedin.com/article/edit/7198429478845300738/
I remember a previous fixture that was also brought forward to Politco where the whole story was not captured. The irony was that a major player that voiced those claims were in fact toxic themselves as well.
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2moThe problem that I've noticed after quite a bit of time in the bubble, is that you never know just how much people are tolerating for a good cause, and how much goes unreported or unpunished as a result.