WRITTEN QUESTION E-3553/98

by Heidi Hautala (V) to the Commission

(1 December 1998)

Subject: Monitoring of infectious diseases

The Council and the European Parliament have adopted a decision (2119/98/EC)(1) setting up a network for the epidemiological surveillance and control of communicable diseases in the Community. The decision followed prolonged preparatory work in which the priorities were assessed and facilities created to guarantee the operation of the network with funding partly from the Commission and partly from the Member States. This work includes the European Programme on Intervention Epidemiology and Training (EPIET), which enables a network of professional epidemiologists using uniform research methods and striving towards the same objectives to be trained for the Member States.

The network referred to in Decision 2119/98/EC can only serve the Community and the Member States well if the information it produces is reliable and if it is correctly interpreted. This is particularly important, for example, with the "early warning and response" activity. The EPIET training programme will continue to be needed as part of the above-mentioned network in the future, by maintaining the network's operational capacity and skills and thus its reliability and operational readiness.

How does the Commission propose to implement European Parliament and Council Decision 2119/98/EC? How does the Commission propose to exploit existing surveillance and monitoring projects and networks? How does the Commission propose to ensure the continuation of the surveillance network and the funding of the EPIET programme?

Answer given by Mr Flynn on behalf of the Commission

(15 January 1999)

Decision 2119/98/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 24 September 1998 setting up a network for the epidemiological surveillance and control of communicable diseases in the Community came into effect on 3 January 1999. It sets out the procedures for implementation. The network committee, which has a key role in this implementation, is to hold its first official meeting on 18 January 1999. The criteria for selection of diseases, case definitions, the nature and type of information to be collected and guidelines for the application of the Decision will be drawn up by the Commission on advice from the committee. Network activities will be implemented in the main by the institutes and authorities nominated by the Member States in accordance with the provisions of the Decision.

The Decision also calls upon the Commission to investigate the ways in which such data can be made comparable and compatible, to draw up surveillance methods and to develop appropriate technical means and procedures by which data can be analysed in a timely and effective way in order to protect public health.

The Commission is well aware that existing surveillance systems which it has supported through financing under the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and communicable diseases programme, and the European programme on intervention epidemiology and training (EPIET), and which correspond to the priorities advocated by the committee, could form an essential component in the first stages of setting up the network. The Commission will continue to support this kind of initiative presented to it under the provisions of the EPIET programme until its expiry in the year 2000.

The Decision does not specify any cut-off date, and the network has not been linked to a specific budget at Community level. Operating costs at Member State level must be borne by national budgets, although development costs, the long-tem viability of the network and epidemiological analyses at Community level will depend on annual budgets granted to these activities by the Council and Parliament.

EPIET, like all other existing or future projects in the field of the network and of communicable diseases, is therefore subject to the same constraints, and it is not currently possible to give any guarantee of long-term funding.

(1) OJ L 268, 3.10.1998, p. 1.