Foreword

Foreword by the Chair of the Management Board

I am pleased to introduce the ECDC Consolidated Annual Activity Report 2022, which summarises the work carried out by ECDC last year – the third year of COVID-19 pandemic, and a year during which two other PHEs were activated, namely hepatitis of unknown origin in children and the mpox outbreak. In 2022, the ECDC Management Board (MB) continued to focus on how ECDC delivered according to its mandate, whilst also returning to long-awaited face-to-face meetings.

In 2022, ECDC’s Management Board voted for the extension of the current ECDC Director’s mandate until June 2024, and continued to focus on how ECDC delivered according to its mandate. As the Chair of the Management Board, I would like to draw your attention to certain elements of ECDC’s work in 2022, which are also related to the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic continued for the third consecutive year and ECDC maintained operations in accordance with its Public Health Emergency (PHE) plan, meaning that a large number of experts continued to work solely on COVID19 rather than their normal tasks. In June 2022, due to the relatively stable epidemiological situation with COVID-19 and the increasing needs related to the emerging threats of hepatitis and mpox, ECDC gradually downgraded the PHE from Level 2 (Acute Phase) to Level 1 (Maintenance Phase). This allowed the Agency to shift resources to other PHEs, as well as change the focus of COVID-19 related work towards longer-term monitoring, prevention and control of SARS-CoV-2. ECDC also collected lessons learned from the pandemic through country visits, expert meetings, and internal workshops. In my view, this move from crisis mode to future normality was an important shift, which also encouraged similar national efforts.

The year 2022 was the second year in which ECDC was implementing its Strategy 2021–2027. Despite several PHEs and unforeseen work due to Russian aggression in Ukraine, ECDC delivered 89% of the outputs planned in its Single Programming Document 2022–2024. Eight percent of the planned outputs were postponed, and three percent were delayed or cancelled by the end of the year, as they were dependent on the amended ECDC Founding Regulation, which was not adopted and published until 26 December 2022.

When Russia’s aggression began in Ukraine in February 2022, ECDC acted swiftly. A Ukraine Task Force was set up to coordinate all ECDC activities related to Ukraine, both internal work and cooperation with relevant UN agencies, and the Management Board was updated regularly. The Director took a lead in establishing a dialogue with the public health authorities of the five Member States bordering Ukraine which were receiving most of the refugees fleeing the country. She also held meetings with Coordinating Competent Body (CCB) directors and national coordinators of all EU Member States. Through these discussions ECDC understood the real needs of the countries and was able to tailor its support to meet these needs. In addition, the Agency further increased the impact of its support by deploying communicable disease/public health experts to the countries, as necessary. I believe this is an example of how ECDC has been able to learn the lessons needed for the implementation of ECDC’s reinforced mandate.

Throughout the process for the establishment of the European Health Union, the Management Board closely followed the negotiations for all the legal acts. In particular, the amended ECDC Founding Regulation and the Regulation on Serious Cross Border Threats to Health are so interlinked that they have to be read and interpreted hand in hand. Overall, the idea of the European Health Union is that all EU institutions, including the different Directorates-General (DGs), relevant EU Agencies and Member States, should work together in times of public health crisis. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the responsibilities of each of the players are clear, so that activities are well coordinated rather than duplicated. One of the most difficult aspects of implementing the legislation will be to ensure that the necessary processes are in place, and this also applies to ECDC. The Management Board will continue to support this endeavour by assisting ECDC with the implementation of its mandate, based on discussions initiated in 2022 and foreseen to continue in 2023.

Dr Anni-Riitta Virolainen-Julkunen
Chair of the ECDC Management Board
22 February 2023