Three new European Union reference laboratories are now operational
Three new European Union reference laboratories are now in place to improve Europe’s response to health threats linked to food- and waterborne diseases. They will help national public health laboratories to improve testing, data quality and preparedness across the EU for the next seven years.
On 1 January 2026, three new European Union reference laboratories for food-and waterborne diseases officially became operational. These laboratories will provide support to national public health laboratories across the European Union (EU), and will strengthen the EU’s capacity to detect, monitor and respond to serious cross-border threats to health linked to food- and waterborne diseases.
The new EU reference laboratories will be active for seven years and cover the following areas:
- Food- and waterborne bacteria;
- Food- water- and vector-borne helminths and protozoa; and
- Food- and waterborne viruses.
What do these laboratories do?
EU reference laboratories collaborate with existing EU disease networks to identify needs and deliver support to national public health laboratories. Their main role is to help ensure that laboratory data and test results are reliable, comparable and consistent across all EU countries.
They do this by:
- Performing specialised testing or complex diagnostics that may not be available in all laboratories;
- Encouraging laboratories to align their diagnostic and testing methods for surveillance;
- Providing opportunities for laboratories to test their proficiency and build their capacity;
- Supporting laboratories to submit correct and complete notifications and reporting; and
- Sharing scientific expertise and best practice across the EU.
This helps improve the early detection of outbreaks, the quality of surveillance data and the EU’s overall preparedness and response to health threats that can spread across borders.
Background
EU reference laboratories in public health were created under Regulation 2022/2371 on Serious Cross-Border Threats to Health. This regulation provides the legal basis for setting up a network of specialised laboratories to support EU-wide disease surveillance and response.
The network of EU reference laboratories in public health is coordinated by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
A total of 10 EU reference laboratories for public health have now been designated by the European Commission. The first six became operational in January 2025, the next three in January 2026, and the tenth one will become operational in January 2027. Additional EU reference laboratories will be implemented in the coming years.
