Development of unit costs for reimbursement of surveillance activities of Animal Health Programmes

An EU financial contribution for eradication, control and surveillance programmes (veterinary programmes) can be granted to Member States (MS) based on the provisions of Regulation (EU) No 652/2014. The current methodology to calculate unit costs is based on Commission Decision C(2018) 2315 of 23 April 2018. However, during the first year of application several limitations were identified by both MS and EU officials.This technical report revises the methodologies that have previously been applied for unit cost calculations and develops a methodology for the reimbursement of the eradication, control and surveillance activities of Animal Health Programmes. The new methodology aims at reaching the highest level of administrative simplification possible while complying with the economy, efficiency and effectiveness principles of the Multiannual Financial Framework (2021-2027). The study was commissioned by DG SANTE. Our approach calculates unit costs for both testing and sampling activities. Unit cost calculations for sampling activities are based on two components: salary data from Eurostat statistics and sampling time data as determined by European Commission veterinary experts. Unit cost calculations for testing activities are also based on Eurostat statistics and on two additional components: material costs and testing times. For these last two components we used different data sources (i.e. EU Reference Laboratories, market data from commercial laboratories and a MS questionnaire).Significant methodological simplifications and improvements of the parameters used have been achieved in comparison to the previous methodological approach. This methodology proposes the grouping of data values utilised in the calculation of unit costs as a trade-off between simplification and accuracy. The number of unit costs proposed for sampling and testing activities is 24 and 216 respectively, representing a significant reduction in contrast to the unit costs under C(2018) 2315, where the number of unit costs were 162 and 1080 respectively. This new methodology also proposed an improvement in data acquisition by using data homogenous to all MS and harmonised EU statistical data (e.g. Eurostat). The use of the most up-to-date data available to estimate the costs of consumables and the time needed to perform a test also represent an improvement compared to previous methodologies, as the proposed parameters correlate better with real data than the previous approach.