THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Decision No 1082/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2013 on serious cross border threats to health and repealing Decision No 2119/98/EC, and in particular Article 4(6) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Decision No 1082/2013/EU lays down mechanisms and structures for coordinating responses to serious cross-border threats to health, including preparedness and response planning related to such responses.
(2)
Pursuant to Article 4(1) of Decision No 1082/2013/EU, Member States and the Commission are to consult each other within the Health Security Committee (HSC) in relation to preparedness and response planning with a view to sharing best practice and experience, promoting interoperability of national preparedness planning, addressing the intersectoral dimension at Union level, and supporting the implementation of core capacity requirements for surveillance and response as referred to by the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR).
(3)
Article 4(2) of Decision No 1082/2013/EU lays down the information on preparedness and response planning at national level and stipulates that Member States are to provide this information to the Commission by 7 November 2014 and then every three years thereafter.
(4)
Pursuant to Article 4(3) of Decision No 1082/2013/EU, Member States are to inform the Commission on substantial revisions of their national preparedness and response planning.
(5)
Pursuant to Article 4(5) of Decision No 1082/2013/EU, the Commission is to analyse the information received from the Member States in accordance with Article 4(2) and (3) and to prepare a synthesis or thematic progress report. For the purpose of Article 4(1), the Commission is to initiate discussion in the HSC, in a timely manner, and, where appropriate, on the basis of this report.
(6)
Pursuant to Article 4(6) of Decision No 1082/2013/EU, the Commission is to adopt by means of implementing acts templates to be used by Member States when providing the information on their preparedness and response planning, as referred to in Article 4(2) and (3) in order to ensure its relevance to the objectives identified in Article 4(1) and its comparability.
(7)
In order to avoid duplicate reporting, the information already provided by Member States to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in relation to implementation of the core capacities for preparedness and response planning should be used for the purpose of reporting in accordance with Article 4(2)(a) of Decision No 1082/2013/EU.
(8)
The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee on serious cross-border threats to health,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: