The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that the EU's mechanisms for managing health threats suffer from general weaknesses, which make it essential to adopt a more structured approach at EU level in order to deal more effectively with future health crises. Calls were made for a more coherent and coordinated approach to EU health crisis preparedness and management. The provisions on health safety, established by decision no. 1082/2013/EU on serious cross-border threats to health, provided a limited legal framework for coordination at EU level, based essentially on the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) as well as on the exchange of information and on cooperation in the Health Security Committee. The first lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic have shown that previous provisions were not sufficient and for this reason a new Regulation has been adopted by EU. |
The founding Regulation of the ECDC Center had to be modified to ensure consistency with the other new Union instruments and with the new Regulation on serious cross-border threats to health. Now the Center is tasked with providing epidemiological information and related analyses, epidemiological modelling, anticipation and forecasting, relevant risk assessments and recommendations, setting out options for the prevention and control of communicable diseases. Its actions will be consistent with a "One Health" approach, ie one that recognizes the interconnections between human and animal health and the environment. The Center will have to monitor the capacity of national health systems to respond to threats related to communicable diseases, as it is useful for the purposes of national preparedness and response plans. The Center will support the implementation of actions funded by relevant Union funding programs and instruments and related to communicable diseases. |
To ensure effective operations and actions in times of public health emergencies, the new Regulation now allows for the establishment, within HERA, of a Health Crisis Council which will rapidly coordinate at EU level the provision of medical countermeasures and the access to them. The regulation also provides for the activation of the mechanisms foreseen under "EU Fab" and emergency research and innovation plans as well as access to emergency funding. In summary, the Regulation provides:
|
"Being Member of eEuropa gave us a boost from the very beginning. We are now informed on a daily basis of the decisions taken in Brussels on energy matters. We have a perfect strategic vision, knowing in advance the future political objectives, without taking risks. We now have what we need to confidently invest in research, innovation and production. "
Client, Vice-President of the strategic planning
Enter the European Health Policy Platform:
|