Commission Decision of 10 July 2009 amending Decision 2000/57/EC on the early warning and response system for the prevention and control of communicable diseases under Decision No 2119/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (notified under document number C(2009) 5515) (Text with EEA relevance) (2009/547/EC)

Article 1U.K.

Decision 2000/57/EC is amended as follows:

1.

in Article 1(2), the wording ‘information on these events’ is replaced by ‘information on these events and measures intended or adopted in response to those events or indications for such events’;

2.

the following Article 2a is inserted:

‘Article 2a

1.This Article shall apply to measures implemented in order to trace persons who have been exposed to a source of infectious agents, and who are potentially in danger of developing or have developed a communicable disease of Community relevance according to the criteria laid down in Annex I (hereinafter referred as ‘contact tracing’).

2.When communicating relevant personal data for contact tracing purposes through the early warning and response system, provided that those data are needed and available, competent public health authorities of a Member State shall use the selective messaging functionality which guarantees appropriate data protection safeguards. That communication channel shall be limited to the Member States concerned by the contact tracing.

3.When circulating that information through the selective messaging functionality, the competent public health authorities of that Member State shall refer to the event or measure communicated previously to the Community network.

4.For the purpose of paragraph 2, an indicative list of the personal data is provided in Annex III.

5.When communicating and circulating personal data through the selective messaging functionality, the competent health authorities of the Member States and the Commission shall comply with the provisions of Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(1) and of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council(2).’;

3.

in Article 3, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

‘1.Every year, the competent authorities in Member States shall submit to the Commission not later than 31 March an analytical report of the events, measures intended or adopted in relation to those events and on the procedures applied within the early warning and response system. In addition, the competent authorities in Member States may on a timely basis report on specific events of particular significance.’;

4.

the text in Annex to this Decision is added as Annex III.