MEPs have endorsed the deal reached with the Council on extending the mandate of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The new legislation aims to strengthen the EU’s capacity to prevent, prepare for and manage communicable diseases outbreaks.

The ECDC will cooperate with the European Commission, national authorities, EU bodies and international organizations to ensure their respective activities are consistent and complement each other. In addition, the ECDC will closely monitor the capacity of national health systems to detect, prevent, respond to, and recover from communicable disease outbreaks, identify gaps, and provide science-based recommendations.

The Parliament also adopted the agreement on a series of measures that will allow the EU to better anticipate and respond to serious cross-border health threats. The new rules include improved prevention, preparedness and response planning at EU and national levels. The Commission will be able to formally recognize a public health emergency at EU level, which would trigger stronger intra-EU cooperation and allow for the timely development and stockpiling of medical countermeasures.

The legislation also clarifies the procedures for jointly procuring medicines and medical devices, including the possibility to limit parallel procurement and negotiation activities by participating countries, in the case of products purchased jointly at EU level.

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