COVID-19 will result in limited EU health integration

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Systems ◽  
National Health ◽  
Healthcare Quality ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Health Related Research ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Manufacturing Competitiveness ◽  
The Eu

Significance COVID-19 is by far the EU's worst health crisis and it has spurred fresh proposals for integration. The European Commission has announced plans to strengthen the management of cross-border threats, enhance the EU’s role and influence in health-related markets, and provide greater financial support for national health systems and health-related research. Impacts Deeper EU fiscal integration would probably come with stronger recommendations concerning national health systems. This pandemic will exacerbate the divergences in healthcare quality and access across the EU. The COVID-19 crisis will strengthen efforts to create an industrial strategy which enhances manufacturing competitiveness across the bloc.

scholarly journals European response to COVID-19 health crisis

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
George Nastos
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Political System ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The World ◽  
The Eu

The world is undergoing the pandemic health crisis of COVID-19. First and foremost, the pandemic is causing losses in human lives all over the world. Secondly, it is testing the economies of all countries, regardless of the degree of dispersion and loss of lives between the states. Another consequence of this health crisis is that apart from national health systems, it also puts to the test political systems. This consequence is even greater for an evolving political system such as the European Union, which in a decade has faced two other crises - the Eurozone and the refugee crisis. The EU has once again been called upon to face an exogenous cross-border crisis. It has to confront a pandemic within the existing framework of its competence, tools and bodies, while creating new ones in the need to support its Member States. This paper focuses on the European Union's response to the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the weaknesses that this crisis has brought to the fore and the policies that would help the EU manage similar crises in the future.

scholarly journals EU az egészségügyért: az Európai Unió 4. Egészségügyi Cselekvési Programja

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 325-336
Author(s):  
Ágnes Szitáné Kazai
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Medical Devices ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Healthcare Workforce ◽  
Health Programme ◽  
The Eu

The European Commission proposed a new, ambitious health programme 2021-2027 in May 2020. The main aim of this EU4Health programme is to provide a significant contribution to the post-COVID-19 recovery by making the EU population healthier, strengthening the resilience of health systems, and promoting innovation in the health sector. The general objectives of the programme are to protect people in the Union from serious cross-border threats to health; to improve the availability in the Union of medicines, medical devices and other crisis relevant products, contribute to their affordability, and support innovation; to strengthen health systems and the healthcare workforce, including digital transformation and increasingly integrated and coordinated cooperation among the Member States, sustained implementation of best practices and data sharing, to increase the average level of public health.

Economic impact of data localization in five selected African countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 337-357
Author(s):  
Mona Farid Badran
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
General Equilibrium ◽  
Computable General Equilibrium ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

Purpose The purpose of this study is to quantify the impact of laws and regulations that govern the cross-border flow of data on the economies of five selected African countries, namely, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Kenya and Mauritius. Moreover, this study addresses the state of cloud computing in Africa. Finally, policy recommendations are provided in this respect. Design/methodology/approach To reach accurate finding the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) data was used, and then the computable general equilibrium (CGE) was computed to estimate the total cost on the economy. Using the three data regulations linkages indexes (DRLs), the increased administrative cost effect was analyzed on five to six major economic sectors in the target countries. This was followed by estimating the loss in sector-wide total factor productivity (TFP) (for the five to six shortlisted sectors). Using this data, the computable general equilibrium model (CGE) was computed, in order to estimate the economy-wide impact. Based on these findings, a set of recommendations were offered to the policy maker, reflecting the obtained results and conclusions and their implications on drafting data-related policies. Findings The obtained data indexes reveal that Mauritius is the country with the most laws and regulations governing the cross border flow of data, followed by South Africa Egypt to a lesser extent and finally Morocco and Kenya both showing an obvious lack of data regulations. The small value of the estimated elasticity of the selected countries compared to the value of the estimated elasticity in the EU-0.347 shows that the impact of data localization is less in the selected African countries than in the other set of EU countries examined in the research paper. This is because the former has smaller economies with fewer linkages to the global economy and are less reliant on sectors that are heavy users of data. Thus, the overall impact of data localization was not as profound on TFP as is the case in advanced economies. This research paper arrives at the conclusion that fighting the trend of data localization is crucial. In fact, data localization hinders the necessary and essential role of global trade in realizing economic development. Specifically, this is evident in the increase in production costs as reflected in the increase of the prices of goods, which would lead to a decline in incomes. Originality/value Global studies looked at the impact of data localization on the EU, as well as China, India, Korea and Vietnam, providing some data on Asia Pacific. However, no study has ever been conducted on the Middle East and Africa. This study aims to fill this gap. The approach of this study is to capture the extent of data localization mandates encoded in the laws of each of the selected five African countries showing how these mandates govern their cross-border data flow and, in turn, affect their economies. Furthermore, the policy recommendations section of this research paper makes a contribution to the existing literature.

COVID-19 crisis risks deeper European rifts on privacy

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Travel Restrictions ◽  
Digital Strategy ◽  
Mass Surveillance ◽  
The Eu

Subject New privacy guidelines. Significance The EU wants contact tracing apps for tackling COVID-19 to be effective, secure and privacy-compliant. Its efforts have exposed how its existing rules on data are adapting (or not) to the extraordinary public health crisis. Impacts Fear of mass surveillance and data breaches will reduce public participation in tracer apps, casting doubts over their effectiveness. The EU’s digital strategy, notably in terms of reviewing the effectiveness of GDPR, may be rethought in response to the COVID-19 crisis. If tracer apps are not inter-operable across national borders, lifting intra-EU travel restrictions will become harder.

Environmental policy is shaping the EU’s energy market

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Financial Incentives ◽  
National Level ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Single Market ◽  
Energy Market ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Trading Scheme ◽  
The Eu

Subject The EU's single market for energy. Significance Climate change targets, the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and direct emissions controls increasingly define the end-destination of the EU’s energy transition towards a single market, while the precise path of travel is determined largely by national-level policies. Differences in national approaches create distortions that hamper the increase in cross-border trade required to make the EU single energy market a reality. Impacts The EU will continue to resist capacity markets and strategic-reserve mechanisms, which create significant market distortions. Cross-border electricity trade requires significant new investment, but it is not clear that the financial incentives exist to support it. The long-term future of gas-fired generation is in doubt owing to increasing competition from low-carbon technologies.

Brexit will be damaging for UK-EU services trade

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Services Trade ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Trade Deals ◽  
The Eu

Significance Even if it succeeds, this will have a greater disruptive impact on the trade in services than goods, because the EU’s single market enables greater cross-border services trade than is typical of other free trade agreements (FTAs). This is likely to cut the volume of EU-UK services trade, in which the United Kingdom currently enjoys a substantial surplus. Impacts The United Kingdom’s departure from the EU will diminish its appeal for multinationals over the next few years, at least. The new UK immigration system could result in staff shortages in low-skilled services sectors. The imperative of tackling COVID-19 will likely delay the conclusion of new trade deals with non-EU countries.

scholarly journals Assessing the quality, readability and reliability of online information on COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. e3591210680
Author(s):  
Paulo Cardoso Lins-Filho ◽  
Millena Mirella Silva de Araújo ◽  
Thuanny Silva de Macêdo ◽  
Andressa Kelly Alves Ferreira ◽  
Maria Cecilia Freire de Melo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Reading Levels ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Content Quality ◽  
Flesch Reading Ease ◽  
Health Related

During a public health crisis, the dissemination of reliable information, advice and experts’ opinions is essential for improving public comprehension of potential or actual health threats and enables the public to take informed decisions about risk mitigation measures. This study aimed to assess the quality, reliability and readability of internet-based information on COVID-19 available on Brazil’ most used search engines. A total of 68 websites were selected through Google, Bing, and Yahoo. The websites content quality and reliability were evaluated using the DISCERN questionnaire, the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) criteria, and the presence of the Health on Net (HON) certification. Readability was assessed by the Flesch Reading Ease adapted to Brazilian Portuguese (FRE-BP). The web contents were considered moderate to low quality according to DISCERN and JAMA mean scores. Most of the sample presented very difficult reading levels and only 7.4% displayed HON certification. Websites of Governmental and health-related authorship nature showed lower JAMA mean scores and quality and readability measures did not correlate to the webpages content type. COVID-19 related contents available online were considered of low to moderate quality and not accessible to general population. These findings indicate the need for further efforts on improving the quality of health-related content on internet, especially during public health emergencies.

US tariffs will test trade alliances and architecture

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Comment ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
China Trade ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Tit For Tat ◽  
Property Transfers ◽  
The Eu

Significance The USTR will subject 284 more products worth 16 billion dollars to public comment. President Donald Trump is intensifying his efforts to return manufacturing to the United States by imposing steep tariffs on industrial imports from leading trading partners including China, the EU, Canada, Mexico and Japan. China’s finance ministry announced it would impose matching tariffs on 545 categories of US imports from the same date. Tit-for-tat retaliation and belligerent rhetoric are exacerbating concerns about the broader challenge to the global trade regime. Impacts North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations are unlikely to conclude in 2018, increasing the chance of US withdrawal. Trade splits with allies will damage Washington's ability to coordinate efforts to confront China on unfair intellectual property transfers. Globally integrated manufacturing supply chains and financial markes will cause US-China trade actions to impact firms in many countries. Cross-border investment fell by 23% in 2017 according to the United Nations -- another fall is likely this year due to the trade conflict.

Balkan Mini-Schengen is second-best to EU enlargement

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Eu Enlargement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Second Best ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Economic Area ◽  
Regional Leadership ◽  
Energy Community ◽  
Border Controls ◽  
The Eu

Significance Meeting in Ohrid on November 10, the leaders of Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania pledged to abolish border controls and work towards an integrated economic area. Such regional cooperation is moving centre stage with the slowdown of the EU enlargement process. Impacts Serbia’s president is using Mini-Schengen and closer ties to his North Macedonian and Albanian counterparts to assert regional leadership. North Macedonia is likely to be a major beneficiary if the scheme delivers improved cross-border connectivity. The Zagreb EU-WB6 summit could lead to an upgrade of such existing organisations as CEFTA and the Energy Community.

scholarly journals Workshop: Everything you always wanted to know about EU health policy but were afraid to ask

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
European Union ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Health System ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Determinants Of Health ◽  
Health In All Policies ◽  
Border Regions ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Objective The EU is often criticized for being ‘market-driven’ and practicing a form of ‘cold integration’. Any attempt, however, to strengthen solidarity and social integration in the EU is met by stakeholders in the member states with reservation and often outright refusal, arguing that health systems are national competence subject to the subsidiary principle. This conundrum of asking for more but allowing for less has blocked a scientifically informed public debate about the EU and health policy. The overall objective of this workshop is to discuss how health research can contribute to resolve this conundrum making the EU more conducive to the needs of health systems, public health (PH) and Health in All Policies (HiAP). To this end we will review the following 4 specific topics What are is EU-health policy and what other policies are affecting health and health systems?What tells us the projected Brexit-impact on the UK health system and PH about the value of EU health policy?Are EU-trade policies shaping healthier commercial determinants of health?What is the added value of cross-border care at and beyond border regions? This workshop is based on the update of the seminal volume “Everything you always wanted to know about European Union health policies but were afraid to ask” (2019, 2nd edition). Key note Scott Greer: In health and health systems the European Union is ubiquitous. Health systems in Europe are hard to figure without the cross border mobility of health professions. Patients going cross-borders. We have a European Medicines Agency that is regulating key aspects of the pharmaceutical market. Health systems have become part of the economic governance of the EU. In PH we have the ECDC, a PH programme and policies on health related consumer protection and may mechanism that should protect European citizens from scourges that know no borders. With health in all policies, the EU legislates literally on all known agents and, when in doubt, is using the pre-cautionary principle to protect citizens from health hazards. All this is supported by a large EU research programme. Panellist 1 N Fahy, the projected impact of Brexit on health system functions of the United Kingdom demonstrates how deep the integration goes and how beneficial it is for both health systems and public health. Panellist 2 H Jarman: The discussion around the Transatlantic Trade an Investment Partnership (TTIP) have risen worries about privatization of health services and lowering of food standards. But TTIP is only the tip of the Iceberg given that the EU has several types of trade agreements with many countries and groups of countries, shaping the commercial determinants of health. Panellist 3 W Palm: Cross-border collaboration is already taking place in many border regions. The European reference networks demonstrate the value of the cross-border collaboration beyond border regions, as does collaboration for joint purchasing and health workforce development. Key messages Health is important at the EU level and the EU level is important for health. Not shaping health and health systems at EU level will limit the perspectives of EU integration, health system development public health and HiAP. Panelists Scott Greer Holly Jarman Contact: [email protected] Nick Fahy Contact: [email protected] Willy Palm Contact: [email protected] Contact: [email protected]

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