2024 crisis preparedness training: Annual Report

In 2024, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) organised two crisis preparedness sessions. The internal crisis workshop focused on EFSA's preparedness to respond under the Serious Cross-Border Threats to Health (SCBTH) Regulation (EU) 2022/2371 and especially the requirement for a Joint Risk Assessment (JRA) with other EU agencies. EFSA's crisis training contractor, Instinctif Partners, developed the internal workshop for EFSA's Senior Management Team to increase awareness of the implications, roles and responsibilities in a JRA, as well as identifying required amendments for EFSA's internal crisis response procedures and the draft Interagency Working Arrangement under article 20 of the SCBTH Regulation. The workshop was mainly discussion-based, with a series of exercises focusing on identifying areas for process amendment, following three context-setting presentations. The external crisis exercise was co-developed by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), EFSA and Instinctif Partners to rehearse a multi-agency, multi-Member State response under the SCBTH regulation. Lasting 2.5-days, the preparedness training event comprised an overview of the Regulation on SCBTH, a role-played, 1.5-day simulation exercise and a half-day debrief session. The event was held in person at the Convention Centre, Dublin, and also involved multiple participants joining online. In addition to rehearsing the development of a multi-agency JRA in response to a SCBTH, the training also aimed to clarify Member States’ interaction during such a response. The objectives of both events were achieved, based on recorded outcomes and feedback provided by participants in evaluation surveys. This Annual Report summarises the external crisis exercise and provides a detailed overview of the development, running, and outcomes of the internal workshop, along with the participants’ feedback.