Board of Member States

The Board of Member States, as laid out in the European Commission implementing decision, was set up on 5 February 2014.

The main tasks of the Board are:

Approval of Network proposals and healthcare providers' membership applications
Approval of healthcare providers wishing to join an existing Network
Termination of a Network (evaluation)
Decision on loss of membership

Functioning of the Board

Rules of procedure governing the board
Members represent EU countries and EEA (Maximum two representatives per country)
The current co-chairs of the Board of Member States are Austria (Prof. Till Voigtländer) and the Commission (Dr. Andrzej Rys, Director of DG SANTE Directorate B)

Meetings and key documents

Statement of the ERN Board of Member States on the COVID-19 Communication Support System
Statement on Integration of the ERN to the healthcare systems of Member States (document available in all EU languages - also in Norwegian)
- Annex to the Statement on Integration
Outcomes and decisions taken by the Board are reflected in the minutes of the meetings
Strategic thinking on the ERN implementation
Strategic view on ERN Affiliated Partners
Affiliated Partners - Statement on the definition and minimum criteria
Affiliated Partners - Statement on the timeline for designation
Affiliated Partners - Rules of termination
Statement on European Reference Networks (ERNs) and industry (2019) - 2016 version

EU National Strategies

A number of EU countries have clear policies and criteria for managing rare, low prevalence or complex diseases, others are currently in the process of deciding on their approach, and how this approach could be linked to the ERNs.

The information below outlines the national criteria or systems used to approve Centres of Expertise, and other possible highly specialised services. These national strategies should help to promote ERNs at national level, and to facilitate the exchange of best practices among EU countries.