ECDC Accession Support Action
ECDC supports EU candidate countries and potential candidate to prepare them to participate in the Centre’s activities and with its networks and systems. ECDC does this work with financial support from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood (DG ENEST) under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) and the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (NDICI),
Through this ECDC Accession Support Action, ECDC aims to:
- strengthen the capacities and capabilities to implement the EU acquis in the field of communicable disease surveillance, data quality, epidemic intelligence, preparedness and response; and
- enhance country-specific and regional efforts to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by advancing integrated One Health approaches.
Action timeframe
January 2026 – December 2029
EU contribution
EUR 4 million by the European Commission DG ENEST through the EU Contribution Agreement 700004344. Letters of Intent signed by the beneficiary countries ensure countries’ commitment to smooth implementation of the ECDC Action.
Implementing partners
Beneficiaries are national public health competent authorities in EU candidate countries and potential candidates (namely, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo[1], Montenegro, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye, and Ukraine) , via officially nominated National ECDC Correspondents.
[1] This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence
Latest news
Activities
Work Stream 1. Strengthening the capacities of Action beneficiaries to implement the EU acquis on communicable disease surveillance, preparedness and response planning, and early warning
- Focus area 1.1. Indicator-based and event-based disease surveillance.
- Focus area 1.2. Preparedness and response, risk assessment, outbreak investigation, incident management and emergency operation centres.
- Focus area 1.3. Regional collaboration and coordination.
Work Stream 1 outcomes:
Action beneficiaries implement the EU acquis for communicable diseases:
- Functional, quality assured indicator and event based surveillance aligned with EU case definitions;
- Routine participation in EpiPulse (Cases and Events, subject to compliance to legal requirements) and ECDC networks;
- Institutionalised preparedness and response planning compatible with SCBTH, including readiness for Article 8 assessments; exposure to EUHTF operational practices.
Documents on country visits assessing national communicable disease surveillance systems
Work Stream 2. Advancing One Health approaches against AMR with the technical support from the EC and EFSA
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Focus area 2.1. Gap analysis through One Health AMR country visits and country roadmaps.
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Focus area 2.2. Support the development of an electronic surveillance of AMR.
Work Stream 2 outcomes:
One Health responses against AMR are advanced:
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Joint ECDC/EFSA/EC One Health AMR country visits with recommendations;
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Costed, timebound national One Health AMR roadmaps;
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Practical technical guidance and prototypes for electronic AMR surveillance enabling routine, interoperable data flows across sectors.
Documents on One Health responses against AMR country visits
Additional documents
Reports
Contact us
You can contact the team at ECDCAccessionSupport
ecdc [dot] europa [dot] eu (ECDCAccessionSupport[at]ecdc[dot]europa[dot]eu)