Europeanisation Goes Global in the Context of Covid-19: Opportunities and Challenges for the EU

Panel 1: Creating a European Health Union: Inside-out or outside-in? Chair: Tugce Schmitt The European Commission intends to build a strong European Health Union (EHU), in which all EU countries prepare and respond together to health crises, medical supplies are available, affordable and innovative, and countries work together to improve prevention, treatment and aftercare for diseases such as cancer. The EHU will i) better protect the health of our citizens, ii) equip the EU and its member states to better prevent and address future pandemics, and iii) improve the resilience of Europe’s health systems. As a lesson learned from the pandemic, introducing a European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), creating a European Health Data Space (EHDS) and ensuring global health security are some initiatives conducted under the EHU framework. This Panel aims to elaborate on the external and internal driving forces that could make the EHU a reality. Panel 2: Europeanisation, Defence, and Security: Challenges and Opportunities Chair: Carmen Chas Since the late 1990s, European integration debates have come to encompass defence and security-related policies. The potential convergence and integration of European Union member states’ foreign and security policies, widely perceived to be important for the European Union to become an independent international actor, lie at the heart of this. The Europeanisation of defence and security, however, is neither inevitable nor without contradictions, and remains a contested topic in academic literature. This Panel aims to address the current state of the Europeanisation of defence and security, and the debates surrounding it. In doing this, it seeks to examine the fundamental challenges and opportunities which have arisen in light of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Brexit, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Panel 3: Towards the Europeanisation of Domestic Party Politics in the Global Context Chair: Erol Külahci For more than a decade (2008–2023), global challenges such as the 2008 financial crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia have also affected the EU. In this global context, this Panel intends to explore the Europeanisation of domestic party politics in the global context (from 2008 onwards). Paper contributors are welcome to present their analyses on EU country case(s). On domestic individual parties, Papers could explore the Europeanisation (or not) of the ideological and policy stances as well as party organisation. On domestic party systems, Papers could analyse the Europeanisation (or not) of domestic party systems (number of parties, cleavage between pro and anti European voters and parties...).