2023 Work Plan: Preparatory measures for the participation of the Western Balkans and Türkiye in ECDC activities, with a special focus on One Health responses against antimicrobial resistance and severe acute respiratory infection surveillance, 2020-2024

Collaboration with countries that have applied to join the EU has been one of ECDC's strategic priorities since the early years of its establishment, and is endorsed in the ECDC Strategy 2021-2027. It is the sixth ECDC project with external financial assistance by DG NEAR under the Instrument of Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) aimed to prepare the national authorities of the Western Balkans and TUrkiye for their future participation in ECDC activities. The beneficiaries of this ECDC-IPA6 project benefit from a European perspective that was granted to them by the European Parliament and the Council, i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Türkiye (IPA beneficiaries).

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.