The EU-US Summit Declaration agreed on 3 November 2009 called for the establishment of “…a transatlantic task force on urgent antimicrobial resistance issues focused on appropriate therapeutic use of antimicrobial drugs in the medical and veterinary communities, prevention of both healthcare- and community-associated drug-resistant infections, and strategies for improving the pipeline of new antimicrobial drugs, which could be better addressed by intensified cooperation between us”.

The objectives of the task force are to increase the mutual understanding of US and EU activities and programmes relevant to the antimicrobial resistance issues, identified in the declaration, to deepen the transatlantic dialogue, to provide opportunities to learn from each other, and to promote information exchange, coordination and co-operation.  The main outcome of the taskforce is a report, including a set of 17 recommendations in three key areas for future cooperation in the global fight to keep antimicrobials effective.

In order to ensure that these recommendations are transformed into concrete actions, TATFAR recommended  extension of its mandate for two additional years. During this time, the taskforce  intends to monitor the implementation of the recommendations via biannual audio conferences. At the end of the two year extension, a face-to-face meeting would be held to review progress and consider potential next steps.

ECDC provides the secretariat for the task force and publishes documents relating to the work of the task force on this website.