Strategic Partners or Outsiders? Norway and the United Kingdom in the European Health Union

As the European Union (EU) strengthens its health emergency preparedness policies, non-EU countries face a strategic dilemma: how they can, as non-EU members, influence and benefit from a system designed to protect member states? This paper examines how Norway and the United Kingdom (UK) navigate the EU’s evolving health governance from an outside-in perspective. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, a focus group discussion, and official documents, the study analyzes three venues of influence: diplomatic, governance, and discursive. The comparison reveals how structural positions shape strategic choices: Norway invests heavily in operational contributions to project itself as a constructive European partner, partly compensating for defensive positions in other policy areas. The UK, by contrast, engages selectively and cautiously, constrained by Brexit-related sensitivities. The analysis highlights a core tension in the EU’s external relations: the functional need to include non-members in health security versus legal and political imperatives to maintain exclusivity. The analysis also illustrates how the European Health Union’s fluid, multi-sectoral nature creates both opportunities and constraints for third countries – a pattern likely to recur in other policy areas where integration below membership level is essential for achieving EU objectives.