For several years, I participated in the VENICE-2 project which systematically collected information from countries on behalf of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
Comparing vaccination programmes between European countries
The VENICE-2 project was set-up to collect information from countries on vaccination programmes, vaccine uptake, summarize the information to develop recommendations for policymakers. The project consisted of a consortium of five institutes and nominated contact persons, so-called gatekeepers from each EU/EFTA member state. For about three years I was member of the steering group which regularly met and organised consecutive surveys of countries. I was responsible to organise only one of the surveys, and was contributing to the remaining ones and added as co-author.
Why does it matter?
The project was an intermediate step between 29 vaccination programmes in each European country that do not talk with each other, and a uniform Europe-wide immunization programme, which could be a best solution for European citizens, but which may never happen. Some of the advantages of having one programme would be easier procurement of vaccines by the European commission, compatible vaccine registries, robust monitoring of rare vaccine events, unproblematic moving of families with young children between countries, and much more! I think the project helped in making small steps towards standardisation and in better organisation of the vaccine uptake data across countries, which are now available in the ECDC Vaccine Tracker :)
Related to
Vaccination programmes overviews: