European Commissioner for Health, Androulla Vassiliou, will announce the winners or the first EU Health Journalism Prize in a ceremony in Brussels. This prize aims to stimulate qualified journalism and to underlight the importance of health, safety and prevention.

The prize was established in February 2009 with the aim to stimulate high quality journalism on health and to focus attention on the health issues that are included in the 'Europe for Patients' initiative.

The short listed articles for the European Health Journalism Prize cover topics such as patient safety, organ donation and transplantation, cross-border healthcare, mental health, rare diseases and cancer. An article from each member state has been selected by a national jury and all 27 finalists have been invited to Brussels. The winners will be rewarded with 5000, 3000 and 2000 Euros respectively.

304 journalists from all EU countries submitted a total of 468 articles. They all cover one of the ten initiatives that were launched under the "Europe for patients" campaign in September 2008. Those initiatives are bound by a common goal: better healthcare for all Europeans. The aim of the campaign is to provide a single entry-point to the often complex world of EU healthcare policies and actions.

The initiatives of the campaign address patients' rights in cross-border health care, patient safety, rare diseases, organ donation and transplantation, cancer, health workforce, flu and childhood vaccination, mental health and prudent use of antibiotics.

European Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou will announce the winners of the first EU Health Journalism Prize, starting at 18.30, Théâtre de Vaudeville, Galérie de la Reine, Brussels.