Simulation exercise in Greece in October 2019

Question for written answer E-003628/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Gerald Hauser (PfE)

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control's (ECDC) 2019 Annual Report of the Director states that the European Union was intensively preparing for a pandemic in 2019. In October 2019, a large-scale simulation exercise was carried out in Greece, literally dealing with the intentional release of a pathogen. The simulation was a training exercise for cooperation between health systems, police, civil protection and law enforcement authorities in all Member States. The report states that the exercise resulted in a ECDC-Europol handbook on bioterrorism from the EU perspective. 'The handbook is now under final review and will be published in 2020', the report says.[1]

• 1.Where can we consult the details of the October 2019 simulation exercise, for example: scenarios, content, institutions involved and deliverables, such as the handbook?
• 2.What specific coercive measures and restrictions on fundamental rights - including media governance ('fact checks' and censorship measures) - were addressed and tested during the EU's 2019 exercises?
• 3.When and from what source did the Union institutions become aware in 2019 that a pandemic would break out just a few weeks later and that it could be caused by the release of a virus?

Submitted: 18.9.2025

• [1] Source: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/Annual-Report-Director-2019.pdf, Seite 22.