Workshop - State of play of preparedness for serious cross-border threats to health in the EU

25-27 April 2018

This week, from the 25th to the 27th of April, DG SANTE organised a workshop on the State of play of preparedness for serious cross-border threats to health in the EU. About 50 experts from public health and relevant other sectors in charge of their country’s preparedness and response planning from EU Member States, EEA countries and the Republic of Serbia participated. Other Commission services, including DG ECHO and DG HOME, as well as ECDC, and international agencies (WHO) also took part.

The aim of the workshop was to support the strengthening of the preparedness and response planning under Decision 1082/2013/EU on serious cross-border threats, building cross sectorial capacity and sharing best practice and experience within the EU and with neighbouring countries.

The main objectives of the workshop were:

• To take stock of preparedness capacity built in EU Member States, identify gaps as well as strengths and opportunities to achieve a consistent level of preparedness and interoperability between national preparedness plans in the EU.
• To promote intersectoral cooperation between Member States, at EU and regional level, to share and discuss best practices, and identify synergistic approaches aiming at implementing efficient collaboration between the health and other critical sectors.
• To provide an update on the progress made and discuss gaps and challenges towards strengthening the implementation of the WHO International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005), in view of the global emergency preparedness context.

This project is funded under the Health Programme (2014-2020). For more information about the Commission's work in the area of crisis preparedness and response, see the dedicated webpage on the Public Health website.