ECDC reviews Ukraine’s communicable disease surveillance system to support alignment with EU standards
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) conducted a two-day country review of the surveillance of communicable diseases in Ukraine on 15–16 October 2025. The meeting was held in a hybrid format at ECDC and brought together experts from the Public Health Centre of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and ECDC specialists.
The purpose of the meeting was to identify areas within Ukraine’s communicable diseases surveillance where further development and potential ECDC support would be needed to implement the EU acquis on serious cross-border health threats and related ECDC standards and practices.
The review took place in the context of ECDC’s accession support to EU candidate countries and potential candidates, following Ukraine’s new EU candidate country status. Its aim was to gain an in-depth understanding of the national communicable diseases surveillance system, including its structures, tools, and processes, and to identify strengths, vulnerabilities, and areas for further collaboration.
Over the two days, participants discussed key aspects of the national surveillance system, including data collection, data quality, outbreak detection and event-based surveillance. The review also provided an opportunity to reflect on ECDC’s future support to EU candidate countries and potential candidates, and to explore priority areas for collaboration between ECDC and the Public Health Centre of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
The meeting concluded with an agreement to continue the technical dialogue and to identify specific areas where ECDC can provide targeted support to align Ukraine’s surveillance systems with EU standards and practices. Following this visit of the delegation of Ukraine, ECDC will sign a memorandum of understanding on areas of cooperation with public health authorities in Ukraine.
Background
In the context of ECDC accession support to EU candidate countries and potential candidates, the objective of ECDC’s technical reviews on surveillance is to acquire additional knowledge and information on the national surveillance systems, their operation, governance, and functionality. This enables ECDC to obtain a comprehensive overview of the needs, vulnerabilities, and strengths of the surveillance systems to identify opportunities for tailored support and areas where surveillance operations can be further strengthened.
