Unmasking the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control: COVID-19 and the Joint Decision Trap

The question of furthering European integration in public health policy in the EU has never been more topical than in the COVID-19 era. One European agency in particular has come to the fore from a position of relative obscurity: the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). While the virus knows no border, the ECDC's mandate remains limited to coordinating the surveillance of risk. The decision to coordinate a common response remains ultimately, in the hands of member States through a specific formation of the Council of the EU: The Health Security Committee. If this system of soft governance has proved itself (relatively) satisfactory over the last 15 years, the unprecedented severity of COVID-19 raises questions on the possibility of achieving coordination between member states. The paper explains why the EU has not been noted for its health-related entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 crisis. The preponderance of Member State interests in decision-making limits policy coordination and the well-known phenomenon of the joint-decision trap. Through process-tracing from the launch of the agency in 2014 to the current COVID-19 crisis, this paper evidences the mechanisms through which this joint decision trap has spawned a specific logic of appropriateness to risk management and public health in the EU. The reliance on the smallest common denominator between member states has promoted a logic of aversion to developing an ECDC-specific form of entrepreneurship, especially amid crises. The ECDC constitutes a critical case of a European agency with no power over regulation albeit in a policy field in which the question of leadership and coordination between member states is highly relevant in times of crisis. The findings of this paper draw lessons for the governance of public health risks in the EU, and identifies the long term implications for crisis management in the EU.