The EU Health Task Force for emergency preparedness and response: overview of its first 2 years of operation, 2023 to 2025

The European Union (EU) Regulation on serious cross-border threats to health (2022/2371) and ECDC’s enhanced mandate (2022/2370) established the EU Health Task Force (EUHTF) as a deployable public health workforce providing emergency response and preparedness support globally during EU Public Health Emergency and non-emergency periods. The EUHTF comprises an ECDC Coordination Team and three expert pools: the ECDC expert pool, the ECDC fellowship pool and the external expert pool. The EUHTF’s establishment and operationalisation was guided by an advisory group with representatives from EU/EEA countries, the European Commission, the European Medicines Agency, the World Health Organization Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network and other international stakeholders. Mechanisms were developed for EUHTF logistics within the EU/EEA, while formalised partnerships facilitate operations beyond the EU/EEA. From its inception in January 2023 to 31 December 2025, the EUHTF supported 31 requests: 23 from 15 EU/EEA countries, including 19 on preparedness and four on outbreak response, and eight emergency response assignments from outside the EU/EEA. The EUHTF facilitates stronger EU/EEA-level support for disease outbreaks inside and outside the EU/EEA, enhances ECDC’s capacity to mobilise European expertise and enables close collaboration with global partners and EU/EEA countries to ensure coordination and efficient use of resources.