MagdaKalata

Magdalena Kalata

EDMA, Public Affairs Officer

Magdalena Kalata supports the Public Affairs and Communications department in the development of their outreach strategy and advocacy initiatives. The Head Editor of an online publication, Magdalena previously worked at a Brussels-based consultancy. She also completed a stage at the Directorate-General for Communication, where she actively participated in the EP CULT Committee and prepared an analytical report on the use of social media by public officials.Magdalena is Polish and in addition to her mother tongue she speaks English fluently and has a good command of French.

She graduated from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (Netherlands) with a Master’s degree in Euroculture and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Media Studies from Fordham University (US).

1 blog from the author

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Global Value

Posted on 28.02.2014

Rare Diseases: Anything but rare

In linguistics, describing a word as a false friend implies that despite similarity in spelling or pronunciation, it actually has distinct – sometimes even contradictory – meanings in different languages. Describing rare diseases as ‘rare’ creates a similarly false association, one which implies they have a limited impact and scarcely occur. Drawing such a parallel does not reflect the reality for the approximately 30 million European citizens who have received a rare disease diagnosis. For them, a rare disease is anything but rare. Instead, it is an often long and terrifying crossing into largely unchartered waters that are characterised by a lack of information, specialists’ know-how and effective treatment. 

By Magdalena Kalata EDMA, Public Affairs Officer