5.11.2013 Official Journal of the European Union L 2931 (Legislative acts) | DECISIONS DECISION No 1082/2013/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 22 October 2013 on serious cross-border threats to health and repealing Decision No 2119/98/EC (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 168(5) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1), After consulting the Committee of the Regions, Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (3), Whereas: Article 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) states, inter alia, that a high level of human health protection is to be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Union policies and activities. That Article further provides that Union action is to complement national policies, is to cover monitoring, early warning of, and combating serious cross-border threats to health, and that Member States are, in liaison with the Commission, to coordinate () OJ C 181, 21.6.2012, p. 160. (%) Position of the European Parliament of 3 July 2013 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of 7 October 2013. among themselves their policies and programmes in the areas covered by Union action in the field of public health. Pursuant to Decision No 2119/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council }) a network for the epidemiological ~ surveillance ~ and  control  of communicable diseases in the Community was set up. Experience gained in the implementation of that Decision confirms that coordinated Union action on monitoring, early warning of and combating those threats adds value to the protection and improvement of human health. However, a number of developments at Union and international level in the past decade have made a review of that legal framework necessary. Apart from communicable diseases, a number of other sources of danger to health, in particular related to other biological or chemical agents or environmental events, which include hazards related to climate change, could by reason of their scale or severity, endanger the health of citizens in the entire Union, lead to the malfunc- tioning of critical sectors of society and the economy and jeopardise an individual Member State’s capacity to react. The legal framework set up under Decision No 2119/98/EC should, therefore, be extended to cover other threats and provide for a coordinated wider approach to health security at Union level. An important role in the coordination of recent crises of Union relevance has been played by an informal group composed of high-level representatives from Member States, referred to as the Health Security Committee, and established on the basis of the Presidency Conclusions of 15 November 2001 on bioterrorism. It is necessary to give this group a formalised status and to assign it a well-defined role to avoid duplications with other Union entities responsible for risk management. () OJ L 268, 3.10.1998, p. 1.