Strengthened cooperation against vaccine-preventable diseases - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 466/1

Pursuant to Article 168 of the Treaty of Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), a high level of human health protection is to be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Union policies and activities. Union action, which is to complement national policies, is to be directed towards improving public health, preventing physical and mental illness and disease, and obviating sources of danger to physical and mental health.

In accordance with Article 168(6) TFEU, the Council, on a proposal from the Commission may adopt recommendations for the purposes set out in that Article to improve public health, in particular in relation to combating major health scourges, and monitoring, early warning of and combating serious cross-border threats to health. Vaccine-preventable diseases are considered major health scourges.

Vaccination is one of the most powerful and cost-effective public health measures developed in the 20th century and remains the main tool for primary prevention of communicable diseases.

While vaccination programmes are the responsibility of the Member States, the cross-border nature of vaccine-preventable diseases and the common challenges faced by national immunisation programmes would benefit from more coordinated EU action and approaches to preventing or limiting the spread of epidemics and diseases with a cross-border dimension.

The rapid spread of misinformation through social media and by vocal anti-vaccination activists has fuelled misconceptions that are shifting the public focus away from the individual and collective benefits of vaccination and the risks posed by communicable diseases and towards increased distrust and fears of unproven adverse events. Action is needed to strengthen dialogue with citizens, to understand their genuine concerns and doubts about vaccination and to adequately address these issues, on the basis of individual needs.

Healthcare workers play a key role in working towards the goal of improved vaccination coverage rates. To support their efforts, they should be offered opportunities for continuing education and training on vaccination in accordance with national recommendations.

Cases where vaccination coverage rates of healthcare workers are considered insufficient with respect to national recommendations should be addressed in order to protect those workers and their patients.

The variation in vaccination schedules between Member States with regard to recommendations, type of vaccines used, number of doses administered, and timing increases the risk that citizens, particularly children, miss a vaccination while moving from one Member State to another.

The need to bring immunisation services closer to citizens requires dedicated efforts to reach out to the most vulnerable in society, in particular through community-based providers. The European Structural Funds, in particular the European Social Fund (‘ESF’) and the European Regional Development Fund (‘ERDF’), offer significant opportunities for Member States to strengthen vaccine-related training of healthcare workers and to reinforce health infrastructure capacities in the area of vaccination.

Demographic changes, mobility of people, climate change and waning immunity are contributing to...