From National Leadership to European Action, an Irish Presidency of the EU Associated Event – September 15, Dublin
The European Sepsis Alliance is honoured to open the registrations for the upcoming event “Making sepsis a European health policy priority: from ntaional leaderdship to European action”, taking place at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, University of Medicine and Health Sciences, in Dublin on 15 Setpember. The event is an Associated Event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and is co-hosted by the Global Sepsis Alliance and the Irish Sepsis Alliance.
This afternoon conference will bring together top leaders of the European academic and clinical space alongside high-level representatives of national and European institutions, including European Commission, WHO Europe, and the Irish government, with the possible participation of Minister of Health, Jennifer Carroll McNeill. Confirmed speakers include Dr. Mariam Jashi, CEO of the Global Sepsis Alliance and former Deputy Minister of Health of Georgia, ESA Chair Prof. Evangelos J. Giamarellos-Bourboulis, Prof. Mary Horgan, Chief Medical Officer of Ireland, Minister of State Niamh Smyth, and the National Sepsis Coordinator for Belgium, Tom Vanacker. Patient advocates, sepsis survivors, and representatives of countries with established national sepsis strategies — including Ireland, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Sweden — will contribute to dedicated panels.
The conference will close with a high-level political session and the formal presentation of policy recommendations. The central objective of the Dublin conference is to generate a formal, collective call on the European Commission and Council to develop a coordinated European framework for sepsis — building on the ESA's Call to Action launched at the European Parliament in March 2025, subsequently endorsed by WHO Europe Regional Director Dr. Hans Kluge, and renewed at the 9th ESA Annual Meeting in Brussels in March 2026 with the support of MEPs Vytenis Andriukaitis and Sirpa Pietikäinen.
The Dublin conference is the result of months of sustained advocacy in Ireland. Following the tragic loss of her sister-in-law Sarah to sepsis, Irish Sepsis Alliance’s advocate Sinéad O'Reilly — together with Prof. Steve Kerrigan of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and Global Sepsis Alliance Board member Ciaran Staunton of END SEPSIS — brought Petition No. P00070/25 before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Petitions, calling on the Irish Government to place sepsis on the agenda of its EU Council Presidency. The Department of Health's invitation to organise this Associated Event is the direct outcome of those activities and of the correspondence of ESA with the Ministry of Health.
Ireland assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union on 1 July 2026, inheriting a Presidency trio with Lithuania and Greece — the countries that will hold the chair in 2027. This event intends to be one step in the strategic engagement with the Presidency trio.
The event will be livestreamed on YouTube. In-person places are limited. Whether you are joining us in Dublin or online, we hope you will be part of this important step in the European sepsis advocacy journey. For media enquiries, please contact: Simone Mancini, Director, European Sepsis Alliance — Simone.Mancini@global-sepsisalliance.org