On Tuesday 4 April, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) published its long-term surveillance framework for infectious diseases. This new framework should contribute to the implementation of the strengthened ECDC mandate and the regulation on serious cross-border health threats (see EUROPE 13049/19) until 2027.
The Centre’s strategic objectives are to strengthen the connection between science, policy and practice, to provide support to Member States and to intensify collaboration with stakeholders, such as the Neighbourhood and Enlargement States, the World Health Organization and other relevant agencies. The Centre also aims to promote data quality standards and epidemiological surveillance standards.
In particular, ECDC states that through the new framework, the Centre will intensify its work on collecting and analysing data on the prevalence of risk factors in relevant populations.
Furthermore, ECDC will coordinate a new network of European reference laboratories to strengthen and standardise laboratory capacity across the European Union and the European Economic Area.
Finally, the Centre will promote the digitalisation and integration of epidemiological surveillance in the European Union and the European Economic Area. For example, ECDC plans to expand and integrate data sources and digital platforms and to connect to the future European Health Data Space (see EUROPE 12944/11).
Link to ECDC document: https://aeur.eu/f/676 (Original version in French by Emilie Vanderhulst)