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European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)

Antimicrobial resistance programmes

Antimicrobials, such as antibiotics, antivirals and antifungals, are substances used to kill microorganisms or to stop them from growing and multiplying. They are commonly used in human and veterinary medicine to treat a wide variety of infectious diseases in humans, animals and plants.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when those microorganisms develop the ability to defeat the medicine designed to kill them, meaning that microorganisms are not killed and continue to grow. As a result, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat. This increases the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

AMR is a growing health problem in the EU and worldwide. The monitoring and reporting of AMR in zoonotic and commensal bacteria in food and farmed animals conducted by EU countries provides valuable information on the development and spread of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and supports decision-making on AMR.

To support the fight against antimicrobial resistance, HaDEA awards grants to EU countries directly on the basis of Article 10 of the SMP Regulation (EU) 2021/690 and Article 195(d) of the Financial Regulation, i.e. not through an open call for proposals.

Reference material

Regulation (EU) 2017/625

on official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products