In adopting the report by Mr Christian CABROL (UPE, F), Parliament welcomed the Commission
proposal, which aims at establishing a legal framework permitting a coordinated response in the
event of an epidemic of a communicable disease. It proposed amendments with a view to setting up
an early warning network and a European Centre for the Surveillance of Communicable Diseases.
The Community network should forward to the competent authorities of the Member States any
information of which it is aware on the subject of any state of emergency arising from the
appearance or resurgence of serious communicable diseases within the territory of the European
Community or originating in third countries. Moreover, the EP asked to be kept informed of the
progress of negotiations between the European Union and the United States concerning the
establishment of a world alert and response network in respect of communicable diseases.
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