EU Agencies’ joint statement on One Health

Credit: European Environment Agency

Today, the European Commission hosted the #OneHealthEU conference to discuss how to effectively implement a One Health approach to the current and emerging health threats facing the European Union, including pandemics, antimicrobial resistance, and climate change.

On this occasion, the European Environment Agency (EEA) teamed up with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to publish these agencies’ first-ever joint statement on the topic, titled Cross-agency knowledge for One Health action.

The decision to publish a joint statement arises from the ongoing work of a cross-agency One Health task force, which was officially launched a few months ago in order to help strengthen collaboration between the five ENVI agencies in the implementation of a One Health approach to scientific advice and risk assessment. The background paper that was published upon the announcement of the task force can be found on EFSA’s website.

In the statement, the agencies’ restate their commitment to work with the European Commission in support of the One Health agenda. They also use the statement as an opportunity to outline what they consider as urgent priorities for action, ranging from the need for more integrated scientific advice to One Health training.

Having coordinated the drafting process as the EEA’s representative to the One Health task force, I am particularly proud of the statement’s acknowledgment that a comprehensive One Health approach must include upstream prevention and attention to drivers of environmental degradation. This notion was very much in focus at the #OneHealth conference today and it is, I believe, the only way to truly implement One Health.

Over the coming months, I expect the five ENVI agencies to continue to work together through the cross-agency One Health task force in areas such as strategic and research coordination, provision of integrated EU policy support, and joint activities.