Consultation on strengthened cooperation against vaccine preventable diseases

Public health community

Summary of the Consultation process

Target group(s)

Citizens, authorities, associations and other organisations with an interest in vaccination and public health were invited to contribute to the open public consultation and to provide feedback on the roadmap for a Council recommendation on strengthened cooperation against vaccine preventable diseases. A targeted stakeholders’ consultation gathered information with industry experts.

Period of consultation

4 December 2017 – 1 January 2018 (Roadmap feedback)
21 December 2017 - 15 March 2018 (Open Public Consultation)
17 January 2018 – 14 February 2018 (Targeted stakeholders’ Consultation)
18 January 2018 – 9 February 2018 (Targeted face-to-face meetings)

Objective of the consultation

Vaccine preventable diseases are a major health scourge. Due to their cross-border nature and the impact on national vaccination programmes, there is a need for common EU action and a more coordinated approach to limit their spread.

On 26 April 2018, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Council Recommendation on Strengthened Cooperation against Vaccine Preventable Diseases. The objective of this public consultation was to gather input from interested parties to feed into the proposal which aims to:

1. Address vaccine hesitancy and improve vaccination coverage
2. Achieve sustainable vaccine policies in the EU
3. Improve EU coordination, promote dialogue, and contribute to global health.

Consultation strategy

Vaccination is the main tool for disease prevention, yet misconceptions have shifted the public focus away from its individual and collective benefit to increased distrust and fear of possible side effects. The decrease in certain diseases, thanks to routine vaccination, has also increased public complacency. Other concerns include vaccine shortages due to a reduction in supply and demand, as a result of an aging demographic and associated costs.

The consultation included four main activities:

1. Roadmap consultation, open for 4 weeks, addressing citizens and stakeholders, who could submit feedback about the initiative in all EU languages, in a free-text format
2. Open public consultation via a web-based questionnaire in all EU languages, open for 12 weeks, addressed to international organisations, the vaccine industry, health professionals associations, patient organisations, civil society, scientific community and citizens
3. Stakeholders’ Consultation through the Health Policy Platform, available to the registered stakeholders, as a questionnaire in English, open for 4 weeks
4. Targeted consultation through face-to-face meetings with vaccine industry and health professionals, public health NGOs, and international organisations working on vaccination.

Results of the consultation

The factual report on the open public consultation and the targeted stakeholders’ consultation provides a link to responses received from the public consultation. The responses are listed by groups. Some of the replies were authorised for anonymous publication only.

• Results from citizens to the open public consultation
• Results from stakeholders to the open public consultation and targeted stakeholders’ consultation

A synopsis report of all responses can be found alongside the Council Recommendation on strengthened cooperation against vaccine preventable diseases.

Reference documents

• Roadmap
• Questionnaire open public consultation
• Questionnaire targeted stakeholders’ consultation

Protection of personal data

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Specific privacy statement

In the interests of transparency, authorities, associations and other organisations were invited to provide information by registering in the EU's Transparency Register and subscribing to its Code of Conduct. If the organisation is not registered, its submission is published separately from those of registered organisations.

Read the specific privacy statements of the open public consultation.

Contact

Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE)
Functional Mailbox: SANTE-CONSULT-VACCINATION-TASK-FORCEec [dot] europa [dot] eu (SANTE-CONSULT-VACCINATION-TASK-FORCE[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)