ELIANT History
1. Founding the Alliance
The ELIANT Alliance was founded in June 2006. It came as a response to the EU Vitamin Regulation that required the addition of vitamins to Demeter baby food. In accordance with Demeter guidelines, however, Demeter products are prepared without additives. This meant that a choice had been lost in an important food sector.
A charter was then formulated with the central mission of promoting and furthering cultural diversity in Europe as well as retaining valuable choices. A further objective was to secure a legal framework that could simplify the process for approving the pharmaceutical products of integrated medicine whose production and research methodology differ from the reductionist scientific approach of mainstream medicine. In Germany and Switzerland, for example, anthroposophic medicine has recognised legal status, but not in the EU.
2. ELIANT campaign – the collection of a million signatures
More than a million people put their signature to the ELIANT charter and with it our concerns. An additional 200,000 people from countries outside Europe also signed. The list of signatures was handed over to Commissioner John Dalli of the EU Commission in Brussels on 13th May 2011.
3. Handing over the Memorandum
The putting together and handing over of the alliance memorandum was the third significant milestone. Presenting the Commission with this memorandum and its 15 demands for creating legal and political frameworks for the initiatives of applied anthroposophy, marked the start of the ELIANT Alliance’s civic activity in Brussels.
4. ELIANT as NGO today
The ELIANT Alliance has been actively campaigning in Brussels since 2012 as an NGO working alongside other organisations with similar goals. It has involved itself with key issues, such as making the biodynamic preparations an integral part of the EU organic regulation or including age-appropriate media education in the EU Action Plan for Digital Education 2021-2027. A regular newsletter keeps around 250,000 subscribers informed about the activities of ELIANT and also about important EU developments that affect the areas that ELIANT is concerned with.
11.6.2021