A new institution is born to check on the levels of physical activity the French population gets. It presents thereby a great opportunity for collaboration with ECF’s health section and to improve coverage on the necessity of a consistent amount of (moderate) physical activity in Europeans’ everyday lives.

Physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality causing an estimated 3.2 million deaths per year[1]. Nevertheless, still only one-third of the population meets the minimum recommended levels of weekly physical activity[2]. These outrageous numbers are among those that alarmed the French government, and pushed it to create, last October, a specialised national agency: the ONAPS (National Observatory on Physical Activity and Sedentarism).

Charged with the evaluation of the levels of physical activity in France, ONAPS will collect and analyse data to be later made public through its website and specialised publications. It will coordinate several national institutions already working on the issue, such as the Ministry of Cities, Youth and Sport, the National Centre for the Development of Sports, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Avergne and others.

ECF Health policy officer, Dr Randy Rzewnicki has been working in this field for two decades, and he says ECF has great interest in ONAPS’ work: “Data collection on Health Enhancing Physical Activity (HEPA) is a very valuable and long neglected activity. We are sure the work ONAPS will be doing will make an important contribution in this field. We look forward to working with them to get more EU citizens moving every day”.

Improving health conditions in Europe is one of ECF’s areas of interest and one of the reasons for its advocacy: a higher share of daily commutes made by bicycle means less CO2 emissions by cars, less traffic congestions in urban areas, more road safety for all road sharers, and much more liveable cities. All factors that would improve the health situation of Europeans. Furthermore, considering the experts’ recommendations for adults to have 150 minutes per week of moderate activity (such as riding a bicycle), simply choosing to cycle to work or to school provides the minimum requirement for a healthy lifestyle. “It’s what we call ‘active transport’, and it’s revolutionising urban mobility”, adds Rzewnicki.

 As ECF works with its partners on the European Union’s DG SANTE Platform like EASO/IASO, The Medical Doctors’ Federation (CPME), The European Heart Network (EHN) and others to get more people moving by cycle “we will do that kind of work with ONAPS too” continues Rzewnicki “Every person who uses a bike or walks to work is doing something good for their health”.

HEPA is one of the sectors of long-time interest for ECF: “We have been working with several networks and European platforms on this issue, including DG SANTE, the Association for the Study of Obesity and the International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA)” reported Rzewnicki. ECF is also involved in a 3-year long EU project called Sport Voice on how to train civil society organisations to do advocacy work in the area of HEPA. Elina Baltatzi, ECF Outreach and Network officer, attended the opening of the Sport Voice project: “Physical inactivity is a ticking bomb” she stated gravely “and our role is to bring forward the incredible work being done on the ground by a number of local and national organisations up to the European and international level. The potential of common advocacy efforts have never been so promising”.

Therefore, ECF finds it extremely valuable and welcomes the opportunity to work with a new national institution, capable of collecting reliable data on such a large population as the French one, and of reaching even the most neglected areas of its territory. After all, concludes Rzewnicki with a smile, “ISCA focuses on sports – ECF is active in TRAN-Sport”.