On 27 April 2012 Mr Hannes Swoboda MEP and Ms Marita Ulvskog MEP, who are respectively Chair and Vice-Chair of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats (S&D) in the European Parliament visited ECDC.

They were briefed by the Director, Dr Marc Sprenger, about ECDC's activities and were given a tour of ECDC's Emergency Operations Centre (EOC). This state of the art communication facility was built in 2006-2007 using a € 1.5 million budget earmarked for this purpose by the European Parliament.

The EOC is used on a daily basis to monitor outbreaks and suspected outbreaks around the world that could threaten health in the EU.