Cross-border threats to health

Opinion on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on serious cross-border threats to health

See also the text of the proposal

The Commission proposal for a Decision on serious cross-border threats to health aims to increase cooperation between Member States in dealing with communicable diseases and other cross-border threats to health. To this end, it envisages among others a widening of the existing Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) to include new types of health threats and the use of contact tracing.

The EDPS Opinion raises several points for clarification, the most important of which are:

•  The concept of contact tracing should be defined more clearly and the main types and sources of data to be exchanged should be specified. Also, criteria for assessing the necessity of contact tracing in a given case should be established;
•  The relationship between the EWRS and the proposed ad hoc surveillance should be clarified, as well as the role of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in ad hoc surveillance;
•  A more specific reference to data security requirements should be introduced.