COVID-19 and EU health policy

This chapter explores the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the EU’s health policy. Health is an area in which member states have historically been reluctant to cede powers and, consequently, the EU’s competences in health are limited. The chapter first introduces the extent and parameters of the EU’s role and the resulting patchwork of health policy and law which exists at European level. The narrow mandate available to the EU when COVID-19 emerged precluded a comprehensive response, whilst the scale of the emergency put pressure on norms of solidarity and free movement. The chapter’s second section describes the initial period of the pandemic and reviews the EU’s response within six different areas of (health and non-health) policy. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the EU’s efforts to fight and mitigate the pandemic using the public health, internal market and fiscal governance dimensions of its health powers. A final section discusses the implications of the pandemic and the EU’s response to it for the future of cooperation and integration in the area of health.