GAPP Joint Action (facilitatinG the Authorisation of Preparation Process for blood and tissues and cells) is a 36 months JA aiming at facilitating the development of a common and optimal approach to assess and authorise preparation processes in blood and tissues establishments (BEs and TEs). Particular attention will be devoted to innovative processes that might come up taking advantage of the work developed in previous EU funded projects/actions. This Joint Action will clearly contribute to the implementation of Union legislation in the fields of human tissues and cells, blood, providing tools and training to increase harmonisation of those MS activities that regulate the areas of blood transfusion, transplantation of tissues and cells and assisted reproduction, in strong abidance with art 4.5 of Annex I of Regulation 282/2014. These are fields of healthcare that involve a considerable amount of movement of donated substances of human origin between MS and also movement of citizens between MS for treatment, particularly in the field of assisted reproduction. The aim of the action is to prepare a “Good Practice Guidelines to authorisation and preparation process in blood, tissues and cells” and its three technical annexes respectively on i) authorisation changes in donation, procurement and collection, processing, preservation, storage and distribution (divided in three part blood, tissues and cells, and reproductive tissues and cells); ii) assessing the quality and safety of donor testing, microbial inactivation and sterilisation steps as part of PPA; iii) assessing clinical data as part of PPA. In addition to this it will be built a model and a tool to facilitate sharing of information among European Union Competent Authorities and a number of CA inspectors will be trained specifically to assess and authorise preparation processes of tissues, cells, reproductive cells and blood products.
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The general objective of the “Metadata registry for the ERN RITA” (MERITA) project is promoting the interoperability of the RITA network registries so far identified and potentially with the other ERNs, maximizing the adherence of RITA members to the ERDRI platform and developing a new registry for sharing clinical data provided by RITA registries according the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre standards with the unique expertise gained by the PRINTO network is the interoperability of its own registries.
MERITA project will potentially affect quality of life of all the patients with rare immune diseases across Europe and beyond. MERITA project will support the activity of the RITA network that includes 126 members of whom 45 are HCPs and eight are patients and family organizations. In the ERN RITA more than 50 national and international registries enrol more than 55,000 patients from 14 European countries and many others from several other countries outside Europe. The MERITA project will also confront with the project of the other ERNs in order to harmonise as much as possible the different initiatives. The overall outcome will serve also as a reference tools for pharmaceutical companies aiming to develop new target for the treatment of patients with rare immune diseases. Overall aim of the MERITA project is therefore to reach different stakeholders including but not limited to health professionals, patients, patient organisations, other ERNs and industries.

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Europe is paying a heavy price for chronic diseases (CD): it has been estimated that CD cost EU economies 115 billion € or 0.8% of GDP annually; and this figure does not include the additional loss in terms of lower employment rates and productivity of people living with chronic health problems. However, the aspiration is a health-promoting Europe, free of preventable CD, premature death and avoidable disability could be possible. Initiatives on CD should build on four cornerstones: health promotion and primary prevention as a way to reduce the burden of CD; patient empowerment; tackling functional decline and quality of life as the main consequences of CD, and making health systems sustainable and responsive to the aging of our populations associated with the epidemiological transition (an increase in incidence of CD and extended life expectancy) whose consequence is an increasing prevalence of CD. In this Joint Action, CHRODIS-PLUS, our goal is to support Member States through cross-national initiatives identified in JA-CHRODIS to reduce the burden of CD, while assuring health systems sustainability and responsiveness. CHRODIS-PLUS aims to promote the implementation of policies and practices with demonstrated success in each of the four cornerstones mentioned, in closely monitored implementation experiences that can be validated before scaling them up. For this, a total of 42 beneficiaries representing 20 European countries will collaborate to implement pilots and generate practical lessons that could contribute to the uptake and use of CHRODIS-PLUS results. Practices to be implemented will be based on the collection of policies, strategies and interventions that started in JA-CHRODIS and in its outputs such as the Integrated Multimorbidity Care Model or the Recommendations for Diabetes Quality criteria or national plans. During the 36-month life CHRODIS-PLUS will disseminate its activities and monitor and evaluate them to verify the progress and impact of the action. CHRODIS-PLUS will look for synergies with international/regional/local policy initiatives in CD. CHRODIS-PLUS will count on the Governing Board of representatives from European Ministries of Health, key to CHRODIS-PLUS development and sustainability, an Executive Board and a General Assembly where all associated partners will gather. A proposal for the EU added value of cross-country collaboration in the field of CD and the sustainability of the results from JA-CHRODIS and CHRODIS-PLUS beyond 2020, when this project ends, will be approved.
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious public health threat that is gaining swift ground. The increase of multi-resistant bacteria associated to the lack of new antibiotics represents a threat to global health. Some patients are faced with no therapeutic solutions as some bacteria resist to all antibiotics. Moreover, “old” antibiotics and to some extent more “recent” ones are gradually removed from the market because they are not economically sustainable, albeit being still possibly efficient. The issue of antimicrobial resistance is a real challenge that decision-makers are well aware of and has gained a high priority among public health challenges.
A closely related challenge is the issue of Healthcare Associated Infections that shall not be considered separately. In fact, infection prevention and control strategies should go hand in hand with i) prudent use of antibiotics ii) appropriate tools for monitoring and surveillance and iii) accurate diagnostic tests to decide on the right therapy.
The various national, European and international initiatives that have emerged over the last decade have shown a great commitment to actively tackle these issues.It is essential that all actors in the field of AMR join forces so as to avoid duplication of efforts and ensure greater coherence. Moreover, it is essential that the strategies adopted extend beyond the sole human health domain and bring a global One Health response.
The overall objective of the AMR-HCAI JA is to ensure that policies for control of AMR and HCAI are adopted and implemented across EU MS in a coordinated way, ensuring national specificities are accounted for, in line with the ECDC and WHO guidelines and recommendations, and in conjunction with other European initiatives.This will be made possible by bringing together different networks of policy makers, experts and organizations on AMR and HCAI working in different European and International initiatives and projects relevant for policy decision.
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This Joint Action on Rare Cancers (JARC) will be aimed at:

1. prioritising rare cancers (RCs) in the agenda of the Europe (EU) and Member States;
2. developing innovative and shared solutions for European Reference Networks (ERNs) on RCs, in the areas of quality of care, innovation, education and state of the art definition on prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
The objectives of JARC will be achieved by creating a platform for competent national authorities as well as institutions, scientific and professional societies and patient organisations, to produce consensus-based recommendations, with a special view to the new ERNs, seen as a great opportunity for improvement of RC patient outcomes in the EU.
Following the results of the RARECARE project, all the 12 families of RCs will be considered. Consensus-based recommendations about RCs will be provided to improve: 1) epidemiological surveillance of RCs; 2) quality of healthcare, primarily through the new ERNs; 3) the availability of clinical practice guidelines on RCs; 4) innovation, also by optimizing clinical research regulations as well as practices and semantics regarding patient data and tissues; 5) medical and patient education; 6) health policy measures on RCs at the EU and national level; 7) patient empowerment (which will be pursued across all items dealt with by JARC). All EU stakeholders in the field of RCs and rare diseases will be involved.
JARC will carry forward the aims of the Third Health Programme by improving chances of EU RC patients to have access to appropriate healthcare, primarily through optimal shaping of ERNs. Thus, all this should result in reduced healthcare inequalities, increased innovation in health, increased sustainability of health systems, decreased health migration and reduction of gaps in rare cancers survival across EU countries.

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