The European Surveillance System (TESSy) is a highly flexible metadata-driven system for collection, validation, cleaning, analysis and dissemination of data. Its key aim is to provide the basis for high quality data analysis and interpretation to provide evidence for public health action. All EU Member States (27) and EEA countries (3) report data on communicable diseases as described in Decision No 2119/98/EC to the system. TESSy was launched in 2008 and, apart from routine surveillance, it has incorporated all  the data collection systems that were in place for the Dedicated Surveillance Network (DSN) projects and now provides experts with a one-stop-shop for EU surveillance data. Prior to May 2005 when ECDC was established, there were 17 DSNs that collected data on a variety of diseases but also using different file specifications.

National Contact Points for Surveillance (epidemiologists and IT/data managers)
In order to ensure solid working relationship with the Member States in surveillance matters, each Member State has identified individuals who are the main Contact Points for bilateral communication with the ECDC. These epidemiologists and IT/data managers are also the main counterparts responsible for data submission to ECDC.

Data collection

• A common set of variables is defined for all diseases. This common set is applicable to all diseases.
• For selected priority diseases or disease groups ‘enhanced surveillance’ is needed. This consists of an additional set of variables that enables a more detailed level of analysis to be carried out.
• The technical transport protocol (file format and data submission) supports both the CSV and XML file format.