On Tuesday, 22 June, the EU Council’s Working Party on Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices studied a new compromise text concerning the revision of the regulation establishing the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
An initial draft compromise had been examined in the working party in early May (see EUROPE 12718/3). In that text, there was notably a question of whether the “EU Health Task Force” (the assistance team in the event of an epidemic), which will take up its duties within the ECDC, should be established on a “permanent” basis. In the new version of the text that was examined on Tuesday—a copy of which was obtained by EUROPE—this point has nevertheless been clarified: the Council of the EU would not opt for a “permanent” team but for a mechanism to be established, enabling this team to be mobilised if necessary at the request of the European Commission and the Member States.
Another envisaged change is to shorten the deadline set by the European Commission before launching the first ECDC evaluation.
The original proposal actually planned for the European Commission to request an independent external evaluation of the ECDC’s performance by 2028, then every 5 years—an evaluation that could lead to possible changes in the ECDC’s mandate.
Member States are reportedly expected to request that this first evaluation be conducted as early as 2025. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)