Twenty measures to step up efforts against vaccine preventable diseases: that is what the European Commission presented on Thursday 26 April through Lithuanian Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis. A few days previously, the European Parliament had adopted a non-legislative resolution also calling for a European Strategy (see EUROPE 12006).
According to European Parliament figures, in Europe between 2008 and 2015, there were 215,000 cases of diseases, notably influenza, that could have been prevented through vaccination. The Commission adds to these figures that more than three quarters of people who contracted measles last year had not been vaccinated.
Against this background, the European Commission, which has only limited responsibilities in health matters, proposes strengthening cooperation across the EU. Its proposal, in the form of a recommendation (and thus not binding), focuses on three pillars of action: (1) addressing vaccine hesitancy and improving vaccination coverage; (2) establishing sustainable vaccination policies in the EU; (3) improving EU coordination and contribution to global health. Among the concrete measures, the Commission encourages member states to develop national and/or regional vaccination plans 2020. It sets a target of “at least 95%” vaccination coverage for measles. The Commission sets itself the challenge of establishing a European vaccination information portal by 2019 and a virtual repository EU data warehouse with information on vaccine stocks and needs.
For the moment, 20 member states have signed up to take part in the joint action on vaccine hesitancy. The total number of participants will only be known in September at the official launch of the joint action.
In its press release, the Commission says it aims to see the recommendation adopted before the end of 2018. Following this, it says, “every 3 years the Commission will report on progress made in the implementation of the recommendation”. The text of the recommendation can be found at: https://bit.ly/2vNx1Zr (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)