Annual Meeting of National ECDC Correspondents in the Western Balkans and Türkiye
The 2024 Annual Meeting of National ECDC Correspondents in the Western Balkans and Türkiye was held on 2–3 October in a hybrid format at the ECDC headquarters.
The event brought together representatives from seven national public health authorities to review progress, celebrate achievements, and plan future cooperation under the ECDC framework. The primary focus was on preparing for the next phase of the ECDC Accession Support Action (2025–2028), which will be submitted for funding to DG NEAR under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA). Representatives from new EU candidate countries Moldova and Georgia participated as guests to observe the developments and discussions on ECDC cooperation with EU enlargement policy partners.
The meeting highlighted the accomplishments of the ongoing ECDC Accession Support activities (2020–2024), including improvements in communicable disease surveillance, preparedness, progress in support to laboratory capacities, and the advancement of One Health approach to combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Emphasis was placed on aligning future efforts with EU public health legislation and policies. Key discussions shaped the priorities for 2025–2028, focusing on further strengthening surveillance systems, enhancing preparedness and response capabilities, and advancing AMR strategies in a One Health approach. Feedback from participants helped refine future cooperation, ensuring that national authorities remain equipped to handle emerging health threats and integrate seamlessly into ECDC networks and activities. The meeting successfully set the foundation for the next phase of ECDC’s Accession support technical cooperation.
Background
This meeting serves as a platform for evaluating past achievements and planning future public health cooperation, especially in communicable disease surveillance and preparedness. It also marked the first participation of representatives from Moldova and Georgia as observers. Participants reviewed the ongoing technical cooperation project (2020-2024) funded by DG NEAR under IPA and discussed the upcoming phase of ECDC Accession Support Action (2025-2027), which aims to strengthen capacities in areas such as One Health responses against AMR, disease surveillance, and preparedness in alignment with implementation practices of EU legislation, in particular on serious cross border health threats to health.
