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Our work in 2021 /

2021 in brief

Work on the COVID-19 pandemic

colleagues having a meeting

The main event impacting the work of ECDC in 2021 was the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic. A large number of ECDC experts continued working in the Public Health Event (PHE) structures set in place in 2020. The implementation of some of the recommendations from the ‘Strategic and performance review of ECDC response to COVID-19 pandemic’ carried out in 2020 helped ECDC to further improve its processes related to PHE. In 2021 ECDC carried out the revision of its PHE plan, based on the lessons learned from the pandemic and international benchmarking. However, due to the quickly changing course of the pandemic, its implementation was postponed. Throughout the year ECDC:

  • conducted epidemiological surveillance related to COVID-19,
  • provided numerous rapid risk assessments,
  • published scientific guidance to support public health decision-making,
  • responded to a large number of ad-hoc requests from the European Institutions, Member States, and other stakeholders.

During this time, ECDC continued close collaboration with other CDCs, the World Health Organization (WHO) and different global partners.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased ECDC’s visibility in the different media platforms and raised the Agency’s institutional profile. As a result of the main developments described above, ECDC was represented in six informal or formal Health Council meetings, four hearings in the European Parliament, and five meetings with the Director of the WHO European Regional Office and other WHO entities in Europe.

Throughout 2021, ECDC efforts in curbing the pandemic were focused on the following strands, among other:

  • Surveillance strategies in different settings, such as long-term care facilities, and transition from emergency COVID-19 surveillance towards routine surveillance. Focus on methods for detection and characterisation of the virus, as well as laboratories capability and capacity;
  • Vaccination strategies and vaccine deployment plans, resulting in a number of technical reports and guidance, as well as the release of visual dashboards such as the Vaccine Tracker;
  • Behavioural insights into vaccination acceptance and uptake, as well as strategies to counter vaccine misinformation, covered in a series of technical reports and infographics;
  • Follow-up and assessment of variants of interest (VoI) and variants of concern (VoC), resulting in the production of timely rapid risk assessments, threat assessment briefs, and technical reports, as well as the SARS-CoV-2 variants dashboard;
  • Predictive modelling and forecasting, resulting in the establishment of a COVID-19 forecasting hub in April 2021.

Timeline of ECDC's response to
COVID-19

ECDC's response to COVID-19 timeline

ECDC's strengthened mandate

Andrea Ammon with colleagues

In November 2020, the European Commission presented a proposal to expand the legal mandate* of ECDC. First, a draft Regulation changing ECDC’s current Founding Regulation was announced, which contains changes that reinforce the ECDC mandate so that the Centre may support Member States and the Commission in the following areas:

  • epidemiological surveillance via integrated systems enabling real-time surveillance;
  • preparedness and response planning, reporting based on defined indicators;
  • provision of non-binding recommendations and options for risk management;
  • capacity to mobilise and deploy EU Health Task Force to assist outbreak/emergency response in Member States and in third countries;
  • build a network of EU reference laboratories and a network for substances of human origin.

After a series of interinstitutional negotiations between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, on 29 November 2021, the European Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement on a reinforced role for ECDC. The formal adoption of the changes to the ECDC Founding Regulation is foreseen to happen once the agreement on the proposal on the Regulation on Serious Cross Border Threats to Health has been achieved between the Council and the European Parliament, expected to take place during the first half of 2022.

In 2021 the Commission continued to pursue the Health Union further by launching a new European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) for health emergencies. In preparation of this structure ECDC was requested to support EU Member States in setting up and/or expanding their whole genome sequencing (WGS) capacities and capabilities through grants. Setting up this ad-hoc grant programme and implementing it together with Member States represented a major cross-organisational effort, which will continue in 2022.

In 2021 the implementation of the ECDC Strategy 2021-2027 was slowed down due to the pandemic. For this reason, and because of the additional tasks entrusted to ECDC in relation with the establishment of HERA, the annual work plan was amended several times during the year together with the financing decisions, approved by the Management Board. The efforts to enhance the monitoring of the implementation of the annual work plan and related resources were initiated in 2021.

* On 24 October 2022, the Council adopted the final building blocks of the European Health Union, including the ECDC extended mandate, the Regulation on Serious cross-border health threats and the Emergency Framework Regulation to provide extra powers to the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA)