Subject(s)
European Union , Research Personnel , Research Support as Topic , Research , European Union/economics , European Union/organization & administration , United Kingdom , Research Personnel/economics , Research Personnel/legislation & jurisprudence , Research Support as Topic/economics , Research Support as Topic/legislation & jurisprudence , Research/economics , Research/legislation & jurisprudenceABSTRACT
CONTEXT: Since COVID-19, the European Commission (EC) has sought to expand its activities in health through the development of a European Health Union and within it the Health Emergencies Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA). METHODS: The authors applied a discourse analysis to documents establishing HERA to investigate how the EC legitimated the creation of this institution. They focused on how it framed health emergencies, how it framed the added value of HERA, and how it linked HERA to existing EU activities and priorities. FINDINGS: Their analysis demonstrates that security-based logics have been central to the EC's legitimation of HERA in alignment with a "securitization of health" occurring worldwide in recent decades. This legitimation can be understood as part of the EC's effort to promote future integration in health in the absence of new competences. CONCLUSIONS: Securitization has helped the EC raise its profile in health politically without additional competences, thereby laying the groundwork for potential future integration. Looking at the discursive legitimation of HERA sheds light not only on whether the EC is expanding its health powers but also how it strategizes to do so. HERA, while constrained, allows the EC to further deepen security-driven integration in health.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , European Union , Humans , European Union/organization & administration , Civil Defense/organization & administration , Disaster Planning/organization & administrationABSTRACT
CONTEXT: The connection between law and political determinants of health is not well understood, but nevertheless it is suggested that the two are inseparable, and this represents an upstream level with scope for influencing other determinants of health (particularly social determinants). Solidarity underpins European health care systems, and given its clear link with redistribution, it can be seen as a means for addressing health inequities. As such, solidarity may be seen as a political determinant of health in the specific context of European Union (EU) competition policy. METHODS: A range of EU case law, treaty provisions, and European Commission publications relating to EU competition policy are analyzed. FINDINGS: Solidarity is typically juxtaposed as antithetical to competition and thus as underpinning exceptions to the applicability of prohibitions on anticompetitive agreements, abuse of dominance, and state aid. Case law indicates an additional dynamic between definitions of solidarity at the EU and national levels. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis leads to two groups of considerations when framing solidarity as a political determinant of health in the EU competition policy context: first, the predominance of solidarity suggests it may shape competition reforms; second, the EU-member state dynamic indicates less EU-level reach into national competition reforms in health care than may be expected.
Subject(s)
Economic Competition , European Union , Health Policy , Politics , European Union/organization & administration , Humans , Economic Competition/legislation & jurisprudence , Social Determinants of Health , Health Care Reform/legislation & jurisprudence , Delivery of Health Care/legislation & jurisprudenceSubject(s)
European Union , Global Warming/economics , Global Warming/prevention & control , International Cooperation , Carbon Dioxide/analysis , China , European Union/economics , European Union/organization & administration , International Cooperation/legislation & jurisprudence , Politics , Taxes , United StatesSubject(s)
Commerce/legislation & jurisprudence , European Union/economics , European Union/organization & administration , Research Support as Topic/legislation & jurisprudence , Science/economics , Clinical Trials as Topic , Commerce/economics , Emigration and Immigration/legislation & jurisprudence , Equipment and Supplies/economics , Financing, Organized/economics , Financing, Organized/organization & administration , Gross Domestic Product , Physics , Research Personnel/economics , Research Personnel/legislation & jurisprudence , Research Personnel/organization & administration , Space Flight , United KingdomSubject(s)
European Union/economics , Financing, Organized/economics , Financing, Organized/trends , Research Support as Topic/economics , Research Support as Topic/trends , Research/economics , Research/trends , COVID-19 , Data Management/economics , Entrepreneurship/economics , Europe , European Union/organization & administration , Female , Goals , Humans , Information Dissemination , International Cooperation , Male , Open Access Publishing/economics , Research/organization & administration , Research Personnel/economics , Sexism/prevention & control , Technology TransferSubject(s)
Emigration and Immigration/legislation & jurisprudence , European Union/organization & administration , Personnel Selection , Research Personnel/legislation & jurisprudence , Financing, Organized/organization & administration , Research/economics , Research/standards , Research Personnel/economics , Time Factors , United KingdomSubject(s)
Research Support as Topic/organization & administration , Research/economics , Research/organization & administration , Europe , European Union/economics , European Union/organization & administration , Inventions/economics , Politics , Research Personnel/economics , Research Personnel/psychology , Research Support as Topic/economics , Research Support as Topic/methods , Research Support as Topic/trendsSubject(s)
Emigration and Immigration/legislation & jurisprudence , European Union/organization & administration , Politics , Research Personnel/legislation & jurisprudence , Research Support as Topic/legislation & jurisprudence , Research/organization & administration , Equipment and Supplies , Laboratories , Research/economics , Research Personnel/economics , Uncertainty , United KingdomSubject(s)
Cooperative Behavior , International Cooperation , Research Personnel/organization & administration , Research/organization & administration , COVID-19 , China/epidemiology , Congresses as Topic , Coronavirus Infections/epidemiology , European Union/organization & administration , Health Policy , Humans , Pandemics , Pneumonia, Viral/epidemiology , Policy Making , Politics , United States/epidemiologySubject(s)
Emigration and Immigration/legislation & jurisprudence , Family , Refugees/legislation & jurisprudence , Relief Work/legislation & jurisprudence , Research Personnel/history , Adolescent , Adult , Child , Emigration and Immigration/history , European Union/organization & administration , Family/history , Female , Germany , History, 20th Century , Holocaust/history , Humans , Hungary , Male , Public Policy/history , Public Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Refugees/history , Relief Work/history , Research Personnel/legislation & jurisprudence , United KingdomSubject(s)
Coronavirus Infections/epidemiology , Coronavirus Infections/prevention & control , Disaster Planning/organization & administration , European Union/organization & administration , International Cooperation , Leadership , Pandemics/prevention & control , Pneumonia, Viral/epidemiology , Pneumonia, Viral/prevention & control , COVID-19 , Coronavirus Infections/economics , Europe/epidemiology , European Union/economics , European Union/statistics & numerical data , Global Warming/legislation & jurisprudence , Global Warming/prevention & control , Humans , International Cooperation/legislation & jurisprudence , Pandemics/economics , Pneumonia, Viral/economics , Politics , Public Health Surveillance , Quarantine/legislation & jurisprudence , Quarantine/methodsABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) increasingly resorts to new forms of governance to establish unified health and welfare policies without member states having to transfer their sovereignty to a supranational level. European Administrative Networks are important instruments in the toolbox of new forms of governance, dealing with rulemaking, rule monitoring, and rule enforcement. Operating beyond, but not above, the state, European networks of national administrative units allow for interaction and exchange to coordinate national responses to increased interaction across their borders. The authors use social network analysis to uncover the pattern of interaction among national representatives in two central EU health care networks. Their analysis finds not only that the network in the area of pharmacovigilance has more competences, resources, and capacity to improve the enforcement of EU rules than the network regarding cross-border health care but also that the driving forces behind network interaction appear to differ quite a bit as well. While the supranational character becomes apparent in the former network, network interactions in the latter seem aimed at mitigating the impact of patient mobility rather than improving cross-border health care take up.
Subject(s)
Delivery of Health Care/organization & administration , European Union/organization & administration , Health Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Pharmacovigilance , Social Network Analysis , Humans , Patient Rights/legislation & jurisprudenceABSTRACT
European Union (EU) fiscal governance, especially the European Semester, is an ambitious new governance architecture involving surveillance and discipline, across both Eurozone and non-Eurozone member state policies, in pursuit of fiscal rigor. It is the most recent of several attempts to expand EU powers over member state policy with the goal of austere budgeting, and one that has led to remarkable claims of authority by the EU over member state health policies as detailed as medical school admissions and the role of primary care. It is expected that it would be resisted not just by those who object to an EU role in the organization and delivery of health care but also by those who object to a particular austere approach to health policy. How well is it working? Using two waves of interviews and documentary analysis, and health as a policy case study, the authors document three key techniques that opponents use to undermine the semester's governance architecture: broadening goals, expanding the scope of conflict, and disputing and nuancing indicators. The result is that opponents of a narrow fiscal governance agenda are again successfully undermining the narrow focus of the semester.