scholarly journals Assembling European health security: Epidemic intelligence and the hunt for cross-border health threats

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Bengtsson ◽  
Stefan Borg ◽  
Mark Rhinard
Keyword(s):  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Epidemic Intelligence ◽  
Knowledge Regime ◽  
Health Threats ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
European Health ◽  
The Eu

The securitization of health concerns within the European Union has hitherto received scant attention compared to other sectors. Drawing on the conceptual toolbox of actor-network theory, this article examines how a ‘health security assemblage’ rooted in EU governance has emerged, expanded, and stabilized. At the heart of this assemblage lies a particular knowledge regime, known as epidemic intelligence (EI): a vigilance-oriented approach of early detection and containment drawing on web-scanning tools and other informal sources. Despite its differences compared to entrenched traditions in public health, EI has, in only a decade’s time, gained central importance at the EU level. EI is simultaneously constituted by, and performative of, a particular understanding of health security problems. By ‘following the actor’, this article seeks to account for how EI has made the hunt for potential health threats so central that detection and containment, rather than prevention, have become the preferred policy options. This article draws out some of the implications of this shift.

scholarly journals Signals, Signs and Syndromes: Tracing [Digital] Transformations in European Health Security

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 722-737
Author(s):  
Stephen L ROBERTS
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Digital Data ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Infectious Disease Surveillance ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Epidemic Intelligence ◽  
European Health ◽  
Data Surveillance ◽  
The Eu

This article traces the ascent of new digital surveillance practices for European health security in an era of heightened global pandemic vigilance. In doing so, the article demonstrates how the confluence of evolving processes of digitisation and production of new digital data sources have enabled EU health security agents in recent years to enhance infectious disease surveillance through novel digitised practices of epidemic intelligence. Subsequently, the article thus argues that the centralisation of these new epidemic intelligence technologies to the core of EU health security initiatives has been foundational to the ascent of a new blended health surveillance practice operating across the EU, which amalgamates the digitised surface alerts of these new big data surveillance technologies with the long-established and traditional disease surveillance legacies of EU Member States. By utilising the concept of surface knowledge in relation to the ascent of these European epidemic intelligence practices, this article demonstrates the key epistemic and methodological shifts which occur in the production of knowledge, alerts and signals for accelerated infectious disease surveillance and the governing of public health risks within the EU.

scholarly journals Electronic Systems of Information Exchange as a Key Tool in EU Health Crisis and Disaster Management

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 652-676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrycja DĄBROWSKA-KŁOSIŃSKA
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disaster Management ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Electronic Systems ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Health Threats ◽  
The Eu

Decision 1082/2013 on Serious Cross-border Health Threats (Health Threats Decision) was adopted in 2013 with the aim of preparing for and responding to serious health threats. In this legislation, the European Union adopts an “all-hazards” approach which strongly relies on the exchange of information as a driver of regulatory activities. This article first demonstrates that the electronic systems of information exchange constitute a key tool in EU Health Crisis and Disaster Management (“EHCDM”). Second, it identifies the distinctive features of these mechanisms in the EU context: the reinforcement of a statutory policy shift towards securitisation of public health, the peculiarity of the EU composite administrative procedures as well as the facilitation of the quality of the sense-making activities. Finally, the article uncovers the possible problems which may affect the adequate functioning of EHCDM and argues the routes for further research. The piece links legal analysis with the interdisciplinary conceptual lens to offer an important contribution to closer characterisation of the EHCDM as a field in its own right together with a better understanding of the EU public health law and administration in the context of transboundary crisis management and health security governance.

scholarly journals The Efficiency of Health Systems in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from the EU Countries

2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-15
Author(s):  
Tamara Rađenović ◽  
◽  
Vladimir Radivojević ◽  
Bojan Krstić ◽  
Tanja Stanišić ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health System ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
International Health ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Comprehensive Health ◽  
The Eu

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the insufficient capacities and capabilities of countries around the world to deal with global infectious diseases and stressed the need to improve the international health security frame-work. An efficient and comprehensive health system that is able to cope with public health emergencies is an essential prerequisite for strengthening health security. The paper analyzes the efficiency of health systems in the European Union (EU) countries and their responsiveness to the COVID-19 pandemic. The research covers 27 EU countries and it is based on the secondary data contained in the 2019 Global Health Security Index Re-port. The aim of the paper is to identify key determinants for improving the efficiency of health systems in the EU, as well as to examine the interdependence between health expenditures and the efficiency of health system in this sample of countries. The research is conducted through descriptive statistics and correlation and regression analysis. The conclusions can be useful for the EU policy makers in formulating a strategy to improve the efficiency of Member States’ health systems and preparedness for possible new pandemics.

scholarly journals From heterogeneity to harmonization? Recent trends in European health policy

2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (suppl 2) ◽  
pp. S133-S142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Gerlinger ◽  
Hans-Jürgen Urban
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Lisbon Strategy ◽  
Regulatory Requirements ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
European Health ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
The Eu

In the European Union (EU), health policy and the institutional reform of health systems have been treated primarily as national affairs, and health care systems within the EU thus differ considerably. However, the health policy field is undergoing a dynamic process of Europeanization. This process is stimulated by the orientation towards a more competitive economy, recently inaugurated and known as the Lisbon Strategy, while the regulatory requirements of the European Economic and Monetary Union are stimulating the Europeanization of health policy. In addition, the so-called open method of coordination, representing a new mode of regulation within the European multi-level system, is applied increasingly to the health policy area. Diverse trends are thus emerging. While the Lisbon Strategy goes along with a strategic upgrading of health policy more generally, health policy is increasingly used to strengthen economic competitiveness. Pressure on Member States is expected to increase to contain costs and promote market-based health care provision.

scholarly journals Temporary Labor Migration within the EU as Structural Injustice

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasia Nuti
Keyword(s):  
Labor Migration ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Specific Nature ◽  
Labor Migrants ◽  
Structural Injustice ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Temporary Labor ◽  
Temporary Migrants ◽  
Special Rights ◽  
The Eu

AbstractTemporary labor migration (TLM) constitutes a significant trend of migration movements within the European Union, especially after the 2004 and 2007 EU enlargements. However, compared to other forms of TLM, intra-EU TLM has received scant attention from normative theorists. By drawing on Iris Marion Young's conception of structural injustice, this article analyzes the injustice of TLM within the EU. It argues that purely rights-based approaches are deficient and that a structural injustice approach is needed. The latter sheds light on the formal and informal processes that place EU temporary migrants in a condition of vulnerability and reveals the multiple individual and collective agents participating in such processes. Moreover, such an approach offers important insights into the agency of migrants by showing how they themselves reinforce structural processes that put not only (i) individual temporary migrants but also (ii) similarly positioned migrants and (iii) other members of the sending and receiving countries in a vulnerable position. A structural injustice approach does not deny that intra-EU temporary labor migrants should enjoy the rights and entitlements that they currently have in the host country as European citizens. Nor does it dispute that reducing the vulnerability of temporary migrants may require “special rights” accommodating the specific nature of their life plans. Instead, though such rights may be necessary, a structural injustice approach demonstrates how they are insufficient to tackle the injustice of intra-EU TLM and other forms of temporary labor migration more broadly.

scholarly journals An Assessment of Coherence Between Early Warning and Response Systems and Serious Cross-Border Health Threats in the European Union and Turkey

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 883-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Perihan Elif Ekmekci
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
European Union ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
World Health ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Response Planning ◽  
Health Threats ◽  
Response Systems ◽  
The Eu

AbstractDisease outbreaks have attracted the attention of the public health community to early warning and response systems (EWRS) for communicable diseases and other cross-border threats to health. The European Union (EU) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have published regulations in this area. Decision 1082/2013/EU brought a new approach the management of public health threats in EU member states. Decision 1082/2013/EU brought several innovations, which included establishing a Health Security Committee; preparedness and response planning; joint procurement of medical countermeasures; ad hoc monitoring for biological, chemical, and environmental threats; EWRS; and recognition of an emergency situation and interoperability between various sectors. Turkey, as an acceding country to the EU and a member of the WHO, has been improving its national public health system to meet EU legislations and WHO standards. This article first explains EWRS as defined in Decision 1082/2013/EU and Turkey’s obligations to align its public health laws to the EU acquis. EWRS in Turkey are addressed, particularly their coherence with EU policies regarding preparedness and response, alert notification, and interoperability between health and other sectors. Finally, the challenges and limitations of the current Turkish system are discussed and further improvements are suggested. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:883–892)

scholarly journals What is epidemic intelligence, and how is it being improved in Europe?

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
R Kaiser ◽  
D Coulombier ◽  
M Baldari ◽  
D Morgan ◽  
C Paquet
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Early Identification ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Epidemic Intelligence ◽  
Health Threats

‘Epidemic intelligence’ can be defined as all the activities related to early identification of potential health threats, their verification, assessment and investigation in order to recommend public health measures to control them.

scholarly journals Self-Government at the Court of Justice of the European Union: A Bedrock for Institutional Success

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 2007-2030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Krenn
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Public ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Administrative Governance ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThis contribution deals with a topic that has so far received scant attention: the administrative governance of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Over the course of the last 65 years, the CJEU has developed its own particular version of judicial self-government. This article analyzes its genesis, its characteristic features and provides a comprehensive assessment. Three arguments are put forward: First, self-government at the CJEU can be associated with a number of positive effects for the Court as an institution. It contributes to keeping the Court out of the public limelight, to fostering its judicial authority vis-à-vis key compliance constituencies and to securing its judicial independence. Second, while strong forms of judicial self-government can lead to a lack of transparency and accountability, these problematic side effects have been largely avoided at the CJEU. This is, in many respects, due to the dialogic accountability relationship that has been established with the European Parliament in the context of the EU budgetary process. Nevertheless, third, as regards more recent developments, such as the establishment of an expert panel for selecting new CJEU members and the Court's legislative role in amending its own Statute, from the perspective of transparency, room for improvement exists.

scholarly journals Tracing Individuals under the EU Regime on Serious, Cross-border Health Threats: An Appraisal of the System of Personal Data Protection

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 700-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrycja DĄBROWSKA-KŁOSIŃSKA
Keyword(s):  
Data Protection ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Border Health ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Personal Data Protection ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Health Threats ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThe article tackles the issue of personal data protection in case of tracing (looking for) individual persons who have been exposed to health risks pursuant to the EU Decision 1082/2013 on Serious, Cross-border Health Threats. This problem exemplifies just one among many challenges of the health-security nexus in the EU. That is, it regards a certain trade-off between the limitation of individual rights and securing populations’ safety. The text appraises the safeguards for the (lawful) limitation of the right to data protection after an in-depth examination of the provisions of the Health Threats Decision, its implementing measures, the reports on its operation, and in light of the general EU data protection laws. In conclusion, it claims that a number of improvements are needed because of the incompleteness, and the insufficient coherence and transparency of the EU regime for health threats. The established shortcomings are, at least in part, caused by the new EU “integrated approach” to health and security. In effect, an overall philosophy of reforms of public health policy in the name of “all-hazards security” applied in the Health Threats Decision can result in a reduction of the adequate level of protection of individuals’ personal data.

3. Health Rights and Obligations in the European Union

2019 ◽  
pp. 40-63
Author(s):  
G. T. Laurie ◽  
S. H. E. Harmon ◽  
E. S. Dove
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Care Policy ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Health ◽  
Health Rights ◽  
The Eu

This chapter begins with a discussion of the European market for health. It then analyses examples of those elements of EU health policy that contain a significant ‘rights’ dimension; outlines the legal framework for the rights dimension of health care policy in the EU; considers the emergence of elements of a European health policy; examines cross-border access to health care in the EU; and considers ethics in science and new technologies in the EU. The prospect of Brexit will not immediately remove nor necessarily diminish the influence of EU law on the field.

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