Infection prevention and action against antimicrobial resistance to meet the UN’s political declaration

Subject: Infection prevention and action against antimicrobial resistance to meet the UN’s political declaration

In September 2024, leaders of EU Member States and their global counterparts agreed to ‘reduce the estimated 4.95 million human deaths associated with bacterial antimicrobial resistance annually by 10 % by 2030’ under the UN’s political declaration on antimicrobial resistance. Given the explicit commitment to ‘stepping up’ work on preventive health, as well as to continuing work on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), working with Member States to reach the 2030 targets, as outlined in the mission letter to the newly appointed Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare:

1. How will infection prevention to help tackle AMR be reflected in the new Commission’s work on preventive health?

2. What concrete measures, beyond conventional water, sanitation and hygiene and vaccination initiatives, will the Commission take towards better infection prevention and control to tackle AMR, such as immunomodulators?

3. What legally binding measures is the Commission considering in order to meet the UN’s 2030 targets?

Submitted: 9.12.2024

Answer given by Mr Várhelyi on behalf of the European Commission

(26 February 2025)

Infection prevention and control (IPC) is a major pillar of the EU efforts to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), given that over 70% of its health impact is linked to healthcare-associated infections (HAI) (1).

The Commission, together with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is working on EU Guidelines for IPC in human health.

Action on IPC is also part of the EU co-funded joint action on AMR with a budget of EUR 62.5 million (2). In addition, IPC forms an integral part of the prevention, preparedness, and response planning capacities of Member States, pursuant to the regulation on serious cross-border health threats (3).

These capacities, together with capacities on AMR and HAI, are subject to regular ECDC assessments and possible Commission recommendations to support Member State action (4).

The Commission also funds research and development activities through the research and innovation framework programmes (5) and, develops and implements, in close collaboration with Member States, innovative actions to secure the availability and accessibility of antimicrobials and other AMR medical countermeasures.

The proposal for the reform of the pharmaceutical legislation (6) is expected to offer additional opportunities for tackling AMR once adopted.

The 2023 Council Recommendation on stepping up EU actions to combat AMR in a One Health approach (7) sets various targets regarding AMR and human health that go in the same direction as the United Nations political declaration adopted in September 2024 (8).

The Commission, together with EU agencies, is closely following Member States’ progress, and regularly exchanges with Member States’ competent authorities on best practices and follow-up actions in the AMR One Health Network.

1 ∙ ⸱ https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/EAAD-infographic-2022.pdf

2 ∙ ⸱ EU JAMRAI 2, https://eu-jamrai.eu/prevention-control/

3 ∙ ⸱ Regulation (EU) 2022/2371 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2371/oj

4 ∙ ⸱ As per Articles 8 and 9 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2371.

5 ∙ ⸱ https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/research-area/health/antimicrobial-drug-resistance-amr_en

6 ∙ ⸱ https://health.ec.europa.eu/medicinal-products/pharmaceutical-strategy-europe/reform-eu-pharmaceutical-legislation_en

7 ∙ ⸱ Council Recommendation on stepping up EU actions to combat antimicrobial resistance in a One Health approach C 220, 22.6.2023, p. 1.

8 ∙ ⸱ https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/world-leaders-commit-decisive-action-antimicrobial-resistance#:~:text=New%20York%2C

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