European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

2020/0320(COD)

PURPOSE: to extend the mission and tasks of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to strengthen its capacity to provide the necessary scientific expertise and to support actions against serious cross-border health threats in the Union.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) 2022/2370 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 851/2004 establishing a European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

CONTENT: this Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 851/2004 expands the mission and tasks of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in order to strengthen the Centre's capacity to provide the required robust and independent scientific expertise and to support actions relevant to the planning of prevention, preparedness and response to serious cross-border health threats in the Union. The updated mandate of the ECDC is part of the broader package on a European Health Union.

Mission and work of the Centre

To strengthen the capacity of the EU and the Member States to protect human health through the prevention and control of communicable human diseases and related special health issues, the Centre will:

- identify, assess and communicate on current and emerging threats to human health from communicable diseases and related special health issues and, where appropriate, to ensure that information on them is presented in a readily accessible manner. The Centre will act in collaboration with the competent bodies in the Member States or on its own initiative through a dedicated network;

- make science-based recommendations and help coordinate responses to such threats at EU and national level, as well as at inter-regional and regional cross-border level where appropriate. In making such recommendations, the Centre will cooperate, as appropriate, with Member States and take into account existing national crisis management plans and the individual situation of each Member State.

The Centre will respect the responsibilities of the Member States, the Commission and other Union bodies or agencies, and the responsibilities of third countries and international organisations active within the field of public health, in particular the WHO, in order to ensure that there is comprehensiveness, coherence and complementarity of action and that actions are coordinated. It will also support the work of the Health Security Committee (HSC), established by Council Regulation (EU) 2022/2371 on serious transboundary health threats.

Expanded mandate

The Regulation strengthens the mandate of the ECDC so that it can better support the Commission and the Member States, in particular in the following areas:

- providing epidemiological information and analysis, modelling, epidemiological forecasting and anticipation, as well as timely risk assessments and recommendations, based on scientific evidence, which provide options for the prevention and control of communicable diseases;

- monitor, in close cooperation with the Member States, the capacity of Member States' health systems to detect, prevent, respond to and recover from outbreaks of communicable diseases, identify gaps and make science-based recommendations to strengthen health systems;

- develop secure and interoperable digital platforms and applications to support epidemiological surveillance at EU level and provide Member States with scientific and technical advice to set up integrated epidemiological surveillance systems;

- identify emerging health threats and monitor and report on trends in communicable diseases;

- contribute to strengthening the capacity within the EU to diagnose, detect, identify and characterise infectious agents that may threaten public health, by ensuring the operation of a specialised network of EU public health reference laboratories;

- cooperate with Member States to safeguard patients in need of treatment using a substance of human origin from the transmission of such a communicable disease. The Centre should therefore establish and operate a network of services supporting the use of substances of human origin;

- enhance preparedness and response capacity at EU and national level by providing scientific and technical expertise to Member States and the Commission;

- mobilise and deploy outbreak assistance teams, known as the EU Health Task Force, to assist in local responses to disease outbreaks and collect field data;

- inform the general public in an effective and transparent manner about current and emerging health risks.

Obligations of the Member States

Member States will coordinate and cooperate with the Centre in all its missions and tasks by:

- communicating regularly to the Centre data on the surveillance of communicable diseases, related special health issues and other serious cross-border threats to health;

- preventing, responding to and recovering from outbreaks of communicable diseases;

- notifying the Centre of any serious cross-border threats to health, as soon as detected, through the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS);

- identifying, within the scope of the mission of the Centre, competent bodies and public health experts and organisations that could be available to assist in the Union response to serious cross-border threats to health;

- preparing national prevention, preparedness and response plans;

- facilitating the digitalisation of data collection and the data communication process between national and European surveillance systems.

As personal data concerning health are considered sensitive data, any processing of personal data under the Regulation by Member States or the Centre will be subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 26.12.2022.