The Commission shall grant to the EWRS competent authorities, designated in accordance with Article 15(1)(b) of Decision No 1082/2013/EU, access to the early warning and response system established pursuant to Article 8 of Decision No 1082/2013/EU.
Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2017/253 of 13 February 2017 laying down procedures for the notification of alerts as part of the early warning and response system established in relation to serious cross-border threats to health and for the information exchange, consultation and coordination of responses to such threats pursuant to Decision No 1082/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance)Text with EEA relevance
Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2017/253 of 13 February 2017 laying down procedures for the notification of alerts as part of the early warning and response system established in relation to serious cross-border threats to health and for the information exchange, consultation and coordination of responses to such threats pursuant to Decision No 1082/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance)Text with EEA relevance
Article 1 EWRS competent authorities
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Member States shall ensure that effective communication channels are established between the EWRS competent authorities and any other relevant competent authorities within their jurisdiction in order to promptly identify serious cross-border threats to health fulfilling the criteria laid down in Article 9(1) and (2) of Decision No 1082/2013/EU.
Article 1a Definitions
For the purposes of this Decision, the following definitions apply:
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‘passenger locator form’ (‘PLF’) means a form completed on the request of public health authorities that collects at least the passengers’ data specified in Annex I and that assists those authorities in managing a public health event by enabling them to trace passengers crossing borders who may have been exposed to a SARS-CoV-2 infected person;
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‘passenger locator form data’ (‘PLF data’) means personal data collected through a PLF;
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‘digital entry point’ means a single digital location to which EWRS competent authorities can securely connect their national digital PLF systems to the PLF exchange platform;
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‘journey’ means the cross-border travel by a person, by means of collective transport with pre-assigned seats, having regard to the place of that person’s initial departure and final destination, with one or more legs.
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‘leg’ means a cross-border single travel of a passenger with no connections or changes of flight, train, vessel or vehicle;
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‘infected passenger’ means a passenger who fulfils the laboratory criterion for SARS-CoV-2 infection;
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‘exposed person’ means a passenger or another person who has been in close contact to an infected passenger;
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‘alert’ means a notification using the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS), following Article 9 of Decision 1082/2013/EC.
Article 2 Alert notifications in the EWRS
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Where a Member State or the Commission becomes aware of the emergence or development of a serious cross-border threat to health within the meaning of Article 9(1) of Decision No 1082/2013/EU, it shall introduce the alert referred to in that Article without delay and in any event no later than 24 hours from when it first became aware of the threat.
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The Member State or the Commission may inform the Health Security Committee (‘HSC’) of the introduction of an alert.
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The notification obligation referred to in paragraph 1, shall not affect the notification obligation laid down in Article 9(2) of Decision No 1082/2013/EU.
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The fact that not all relevant information, as indicated in Article 9(3) of that Decision, may be available shall not delay the notification of an alert.
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The alert referred to in paragraph 1 shall specify how the criteria laid down in Article 9(1) of Decision No 1082/2013/EU are fulfilled.
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Where, following an alert notification, a Member State or the Commission wishes to communicate available relevant information for coordination purposes pursuant to Article 9(3) of Decision No 1082/2013/EU, it shall use the ad hoc functionality of the EWRS to post a ‘comment’ in reply to the initial notification message.
Article 2a Platform for the exchange of PLF data
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A platform for the secure exchange of PLF data of infected passengers for the sole purpose of SARS-CoV-2 contact tracing of exposed persons by the EWRS competent authorities (‘PLF exchange platform’) is established under the EWRS as a complement of the selective messaging functionality existing within that system.
The PLF exchange platform shall provide a digital entry point for EWRS competent authorities to securely connect their national digital PLF systems or connect through the common European Union digital Passenger Locator Form System (‘EUdPLF’), in order to enable the exchange of data collected through PLFs.
The EWRS competent authorities shall be able to use the PLF exchange platform for the exchange of additional data, that is to say epidemiological data for the sole purpose of SARS-CoV-2 contact tracing of exposed persons, in accordance with Article 2b(5).
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The PLF exchange platform shall be operated by the ECDC.
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In order to fulfil their obligations under Article 2 to notify serious cross-border threats to health that are identified in the context of the collection of PLF data, the EWRS competent authorities of the Member States requiring the completion of PLF shall exchange a set of PLF data, as detailed in Article 2b, through the PLF exchange platform.
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The EWRS competent authorities may continue to fulfil their obligations under Article 9(1) and 9(3) of Decision 1082/2013/EU to notify serious cross-border threats to health that are identified in the context of the collection of PLF data through the other existing communication channels referred to in Article 1(2) of this Decision, on a temporary basis and provided that that choice does not compromise the purpose of contact tracing.
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The PLF exchange platform shall not store the PLF and the additional epidemiological data. It shall only allow EWRS competent authorities to receive data that were sent to them by other EWRS competent authorities for the sole purpose of SARS-CoV-2 contact tracing. The ECDC shall only access the data for ensuring the good functioning of the PLF exchange platform.
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The EWRS competent authorities shall not retain the PLF and epidemiological data received through the PLF exchange platform for longer than the retention period applicable in the context of their national SARS-CoV-2 contact tracing activities.
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The Commission shall cooperate with the ECDC in the fulfilment of the tasks entrusted to it under this Decision, in particular as regards technical and organisational measures relating to the deployment, implementation, operation, maintenance and further development of the PLF exchange platform.
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Processing of personal data in the PLF exchange platform for the sole purpose of SARS-CoV-2 contact tracing shall be performed until 31 May 2022 or until the Director-General of the World Health Organization has declared, in accordance with the International Health Regulations, that the public health emergency of international concern caused by SARS-CoV-2 has ended, whichever is the earliest.
Article 2b Data to be exchanged
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When notifying an alert in the PLF exchange platform, the EWRS competent authorities of the Member State where the infected passenger is identified shall transmit the following PLF data to the EWRS competent authorities of the Member State of the infected passenger’s initial departure or residence, where the place of residence is different from the place of initial departure:
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first name;
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last name;
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date of birth;
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phone number (landline and/or mobile);
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e-mail address;
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address of residence.
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The EWRS competent authorities of the Member State of the infected passenger’s initial departure may transmit the PLF data received to a Member State of departure other than the one declared in the PLF as Member State of initial departure, where they have the additional information pointing to the Member State that should perform the contact tracing.
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When notifying an alert in the PLF exchange platform, the EWRS competent authorities of the Member State where the infected passenger is identified shall transmit the following PLF data, in relation to each leg of that passenger’s journey, to the EWRS competent authorities of all Member States:
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place of departure of each concerned transport;
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place of arrival of each concerned transport;
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date of departure of each concerned transport;
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type of each concerned transport (e.g. plane, train, coach, ferry, ship);
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identification number of each concerned transport (e.g. flight number, train number, coach’s number plate, ferry or ship name);
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seat/cabin number in each concerned transport;
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where necessary, the time of departure of each concerned transport.
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Where the EWRS competent authorities of the Member State notifying the alert can identify the Member States concerned based on information at their disposal, they shall transmit the data listed in paragraph 3 only to the EWRS competent authorities of those Member States.
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The EWRS competent authorities shall be able to provide the following epidemiological data, where this is necessary in order to perform effective contact tracing:
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type of test performed;
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variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus;
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date of sampling;
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date of symptom onset.