EU health policy in the post-COVID era

Between the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the end of 2020, sweeping changes to the EU’s health governance framework were proposed. The EU adopted a standalone Health Programme (EU4Health) with a dramatically increased budget, published a new Vaccine Strategy and a new Pharmaceutical Strategy, and launched a package of measures designed to form the basis of a European Health Union. Deeper, less direct changes were also underway – the Commission quietly reinterpreted the definition of public health in the context of internal market law, and the narrative focus of the European Semester, a key determinant of health policy in Europe, was revised to focus on mitigating the economic and social impact of the pandemic. Utilising the three faces framework – which identifies three core dimensions of the EU’s health policy: public health, internal market and fiscal governance – this paper reviews the changes to EU health governance that have taken place since the COVID-19 crisis emerged. It reflects on the focus and extent of these changes, what they suggest for further cooperation and integration in the area of health, and how they compare to policy changes made in the aftermath of previous crises (BSE, SARS, etc.).