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 outcomes of the task force will include a proposal with suggestions for areas of future cooperation between the EU and the US to be presented at the EU-US Summit in 2011.