1. Home
  2. About ECDC
  3. What we do
  4. Preparedness

ECDC activities on preparedness

The ECDC supports the EU and European Economic Area (EEA) Member States as well as the European Commission in the area of public health preparedness.

Decision No 1082/2013/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of 22 October 2013 on serious cross-border threats to health calls on all EU Member States to further develop, strengthen and maintain their capacities to monitor, identify (early warning and assessment) and respond to serious cross-border health threats.

Under the World Health Organisation (WHO) International Health Regulation of 2005, countries are also committed to further build their capacities to detect, assess and notify, and report on public health emergencies of international concern.

For this purpose, in the specific area of public health preparedness, the ECDC looks to: identify good practices through the collection and assessment of scientific evidence as well as real life case studies; disseminate good practices through the provision of evidence-based tools and guidelines as well as good practice workshop; and strengthen capacities through the development of training curricula and the provision of training.

To reach its objectives, the ECDC aims to define and develop its activities in partnership with its stakeholders and partners and to structure them in accordance with the three core stages of preparedness cycle: anticipation, response and recovery.

Our stakeholders and partners

The ECDC is committed to its stakeholders and partners, providing support and expertise:

  • To EU/EEA MS on public health emergency planning, business continuity and interoperability through guidance, toolkits and simulation exercises (jointly with EC and regional partners such as WHO EURO).
     
  • To the European Commission on implementation of the provisions under the legislation on serious cross-border threats to health (art. 4) and other related initiatives, including technical analysis to support the Health Security Committee.
     
  • To key stakeholders for discussing and sharing practices on matters related to public health emergency preparedness. Moreover, initiatives to promote operational research in public health emergency preparedness have been started for identifying critical aspects of public health systems vulnerabilities.

Read more