On discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for the financial year 2022

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SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its proposal for a decision:

1. Recalls that the mission of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (the ‘Centre’) is to identify, assess and communicate current and emerging threats to human health posed by infectious diseases and works within the six following fields, namely surveillance, outbreak preparedness and response support, scientific advice, microbiology surveillance, public health training and communication;

2. Notes that the core budget of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (the ‘Centre’) for 2022 was to EUR 99,9 million (the 40% decrease compared to 2021 being due to changes in HERA grants) and that 96,6% of the total revenue derives from the Union budget;

3 Welcomes the working agreement between the Centre and the European Health Emergency Response Authority on 16th March 2023 in order to further eliminate possible unnecessary overlaps and working towards using available resources more efficiently;

4. Welcomes the Centres continuous work on monitoring antimicrobial resistance and its efforts to support the Unions work towards its five targets as adopted on 13 June 2023 by the Council within its Recommendation on stepping up EU actions to combat antimicrobial resistance in a One Health approach to be achieved by 2030. These targets encompass a reduction in overall antibiotic consumption, specific antibiotic group preferences, and the mitigation of bloodstream infections caused by pathogens that are often resistant to several antibiotics at the same time; Recalls that Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health challenge in Europe and globally killing more than 35 000 people annually throughout the European Union, Iceland and Norway;

5. Notes that during the year 2022, the overall budget execution in terms of commitment appropriations was 98,86% (representing an decrease of 0,49% compared to 2021), while, in terms of payments, budget execution increased by 9,5% compared to 2021 and reached 73,61% of the total 2022 budget;

6. Notes that the additional posts allocated to the Centre following the extension of the Centre’s mandate have been filled in 2022; Underlines that the addition of new tasks and its increasing workload must be accompanied by adequate corresponding increases in the Centre’s staff and resources, and that a shortage of staff puts the continuity of its operations under significant pressure and threatens the quality of the Centre’s work;

7. Notes with concern the overlapping mandate between the ECDC and HERA and calls for reduction of duplication of efforts between the two entities and clear division of tasks;

8. Welcomes the Centre’s modalities for the implementation of the reinforced mandate of ECDC which came into force in December 2022, as well as the transformation programme ASPIRE (Anticipate, Support, Prepare, Inform, Respond and Empower) developed to aid the implementation;

9. Notes that in 2022, the Centre maintained its public health emergency (PHE) plan in response to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, which, due to the relatively stable epidemiological situation, was downgraded to ‘maintenance phase’ in June 2022; notes that ECDC’s pandemic-related workload remained high throughout the year, although the focus shifted towards longer-term monitoring, prevention and control of SARS-CoV-2;

10. Notes that the Centre simultaneously operated two additional PHEs in 2022, for monkey pox and hepatitis of unknown origin, which put severe demands on the Centre’s expert capacity to cover the activities required for all three emergencies;

11 Highlights the Centre's rapid response to the Russian aggression against Ukraine, in particular the fact that the Centre supported Member States by actively coordinating and delivering technical and operational response activities related to the influx of refugees;

12. Notes that the Centre delivered 89% of the outputs programmed for 2022 under the Centre’s Strategy 2021-2027, with a total of 8% of planned outputs postponed and 3% delayed or cancelled, including the update of its Surveillance Atlas of Infectious Diseases and Annual Epidemiological Report chapters, the new ECDC surveillance portal EpiPulse, and the publication of 210 scientific outputs as well as 65 peer-reviewed articles;

13. Calls on the Centre to ensure full transparency in publishing of scientific studies and to enhance its external communications capacity towards the general public, by ensuring that all key information, especially related to public health emergencies is available in all EU languages and making it easily accessible and understandable to EU citizens;

14. Calls on the Commission to grant to the Centre the necessary resources to fulfil the objectives of the Strategy 2021-2027 and to implement the Centre’s revised founding Regulation;

15. Notes that 3% of the appointed Management Board members/alternates) as well as 3% of the appointed Advisory Forum members/alternates did not file their annual Declaration of Interest (DoI). calls on the Centre to ensure that all management board members, advisory forum members and their alternates have dutifully submitted the required annual declarations of interest; calls on the Centre to ensure that appropriate experts are engaged in the Centre’s work throughout its activities and that a high level of compliance with conflict of interest rules is maintained;

16. Notes that an in-depth exchange of information and know-how between the ECDC, Member States and other partners, as well as facilitating exchanges between Member States, is essential for the protection of public health;

17. Welcomes the fact that overall stakeholder satisfaction with the ECDC's work reached 86% in 2022;

18. Highlights the fact that the Centre ensures that its scientific outputs are freely available both on its website and in scientific journals, with 98% of ECDC publications in peer-reviewed journals being freely accessible in 2022;

19. Commends the continued work in 2022 to identify new antimicrobial-resistant strains that are of particular concern, such as multidrug-resistant strains, bacteria producing extended-spectrum beta-lactamases and/or carbapenemases, and highlights the importance of this issue for public health protection;

20. Recommends, based on the facts available, that discharge be granted to the Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in respect of the implementation of the Centre's budget for the financial year 2022.

ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT

The Chair in his capacity as rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

Date adopted

24.1.2024

Result of final vote

+:

–:

0:

71

6

6

Members present for the final vote

Catherine Amalric, Maria Arena, Hildegard Bentele, Sergio Berlato, Michael Bloss, Delara Burkhardt, Pascal Canfin, Sara Cerdas, Mohammed Chahim, Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé, Maria Angela Danzì, Esther de Lange, Bas Eickhout, Pietro Fiocchi, Heléne Fritzon, Malte Gallée, Gianna Gancia, Catherine Griset, Teuvo Hakkarainen, Martin Hojsík, Jan Huitema, Karin Karlsbro, Javi López, César Luena, Elżbieta Katarzyna Łukacijewska, Marian-Jean Marinescu, Liudas Mažylis, Silvia Modig, Dolors Montserrat, Alessandra Moretti, Ville Niinistö, Ljudmila Novak, Francesca Peppucci, Stanislav Polčák, Jessica Polfjärd, Erik Poulsen, Frédérique Ries, María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos, Silvia Sardone, Günther Sidl, Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, Maria Spyraki, Achille Variati, Petar Vitanov, Alexandr Vondra, Emma Wiesner, Michal Wiezik

Substitutes present for the final vote

Asger Christensen, Christophe Clergeau, Margarita de la Pisa Carrión, Martin Häusling, Billy Kelleher, Ska Keller, Danilo Oscar Lancini, Sara Matthieu, Dace Melbārde, Manuela Ripa

Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote

Mazaly Aguilar, Katarina Barley, Daniel Buda, Ana Collado Jiménez, Marie Dauchy, Matthias Ecke, Paola Ghidoni, Anja Hazekamp, Peter Jahr, Petros Kokkalis, Peter Liese, Thierry Mariani, Lydie Massard, Nora Mebarek, Marina Mesure, Nicola Procaccini, Maria Veronica Rossi, Sara Skyttedal, Michaela Šojdrová, Edina Tóth, Idoia Villanueva Ruiz, Veronika Vrecionová, Thomas Waitz, Mick Wallace, Jörgen Warborn, Stefania Zambelli

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

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