Kraków: Health emergency preparedness across Europe shows strong commitment but recurring weaknesses, according to the first full round of assessments completed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The agency announced the results on 29 October 2026. The first cycle of Public Health Emergency Preparedness Assessments began in 2024 and is the first time these reviews have covered the whole of the EU and EEA.
ECDC ran the assessments with the European Commission, the WHO Regional Office for Europe and other partners. They examine prevention, preparedness and response planning, including surveillance systems, laboratory capacity, health emergency management, risk communication and coordination mechanisms. After each country review, ECDC issues recommendations to that country.
The strengths are real. The agency finds strong governance structures across the region, and it reports better laboratory and surveillance capacity since the COVID-19 pandemic. Health emergency preparedness benefits from these gains, and core capacities such as laboratory systems, surveillance and health emergency management stand out as sound in the EU and EEA.
The weaknesses are just as consistent. Plans are not always put into practice, and staff shortages limit what national services can deliver in a crisis. Data sharing and interoperable systems remain limited, and countries struggle to turn data into policy decisions. These gaps matter because a plan that exists only on paper does not protect anyone when a new threat arrives.
ECDC recommends stronger advance planning across sectors, formal arrangements for cross-sector coordination and routine testing of preparedness through exercises. Those steps matter most for civil protection services, which depend on health, transport, security and local authorities acting together at short notice. Regular drills also reveal problems before a real emergency does.
The assessments sit within a three-year reporting cycle under Regulation (EU) 2022/2371 on serious cross-border threats to health. DG SANTE, DG HERA, other EU agencies and stakeholders support the process in all EU and EEA countries. The findings will now guide targeted help for health emergency preparedness as countries act on the recommendations.
The next step comes in 2027, when the second cycle begins and runs until 2029. It will place more weight on national action plans and on the progress countries make against first-round recommendations. The page published by ECDC gives no country-by-country scores, so governments will need to read their own reports closely.
For ministries and emergency services, the lesson is practical. Health emergency preparedness depends on staff, data and exercises as much as on legislation, and the first assessment cycle shows where Europe should invest before the next outbreak.
