These measures intend to achieve a better coordination between Member states and the European Union in cases where biological, chemical or environmental health factors can trigger serious cross-border health threats. According to the proposal, the Commission would be empowered in very special cases to adopt emergency cross-border measures such as infected citizens screening.

Among the measures put forward by the European Commission to react in situations of cross-border health threats, the proposal includes extending the existing co-ordination mechanism for communicable diseases to all heath threats coming from other agents, and strengthening the mandate of the Health Security Committee. One of the key elements in fighting against health threats is to adopt the necessary measures to ensure preparedness and response to these types of situations. These elements include improved information in decision-making as well as better supply of medicines. In this regard, the proposal provides the possibility to adopt joint procurement of medicines by the publication of single public procurement announcements that would speed up the purchasing process and allow to get better deals benefiting from common skills and expertise.

This proposal draws on the experience of recent crises, such as pandemic H1N1 influenza which in 2009 affected thousands of Europeans, the effects of the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull in 2010, or the most recent crisis over the E-coli outbreak. The new proposal aims to improve the response to these kind of crisis through the Early Warning Rapid Alert System (EWRS).

In the field of preparedness in large-scale health crisis, the proposal provides that Member States coordinate preparedness and response measures with other states, complying with the guidelines set by the Commission. These coordination measures may include the actions to be taken as well as provisions on how crisis should be communicated to population. Moreover, according to this proposal, the European Union would not have to wait for an international emergency situation to be declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), and would be entitled to declare a state of European emergency should the situation provide for it.