EMA’s Patients and Consumer Working Party (PCWP) has elected Marco Greco of the European Patients Forum as its new co-chair. The Healthcare Professionals’ Working Party (HCPWP) has elected Dr Piotr Szymanski as its new co-chair. Together with Juan Garcia Burgos, Head of Public and Stakeholder Engagement at EMA, they will co-chair the meetings of their respective working parties for the mandate 2025-2028. The vote took place during the first day of the September 2025 meeting of both working parties.
Marco Greco is a lawyer by training and has extensive advocacy experience. He is a longstanding PCWP member and has served two terms for both the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) and EMA’s Management Board. Mr Greco is also the President of the Board of the European Patients’ Forum and brings many years of advocacy experience with EMA and across Europe. He follows Marko Korenjak in the role of co-chair of the PCWP.
"The PCWP is a model of how patients can meaningfully contribute to the work of EMA, ensuring the patient voice is heard across the breadth of the Agency’s activities. At a time when the role of civil society and patient organisations is increasingly called into question, it is more important than ever to strengthen the PCWP and demonstrate the added value of our involvement at the regulatory level.“
Dr Piotr Szymanski brings over 30 years of experience as a senior cardiologist, professor, and policy advisor across clinical, academic, regulatory, and digital health domains. He has been a member of the HCPWP since 2022, representing the European Society of Cardiology, where he also serves as a Member of the Board, and as Chair of the Regulatory Affairs Committee. In this role, he has worked to coordinate input across diverse clinical communities, build consensus and foster constructive dialogue with regulators. He follows Rosa Giuliani in the role of co-chair of the HCPWP.
"Early and sustained engagement with healthcare professional and patient organisations - across areas such as medicines development, clinical trials, pharmacovigilance, digital tools, and access to medicines - is essential to ensure that regulatory initiatives effectively meet patients’ needs and continuously foster trust in scientific methods."
The PCWP and HCPWP are formal working parties of EMA, composed of representative organisations of patients, consumers and healthcare professionals as well as representatives from EMA’s human scientific committees. They support and monitor the involvement of patients, consumers, healthcare professionals and their organisations in Agency activities. They identify opportunities and challenges that may need special attention, particularly in the context of their respective frameworks for interaction and engagement.
A new joint 2025-2028 mandate for the PCWP and the HCPWP was adopted by EMA’s scientific committees during the September 2025 meeting.