Everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-European-Union-health-policies-but-were-afraid-to-ask

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Everything you always wanted to know about European Union health policies
of Schools of Public Health of the European Region, the European Federation
of Associations of Dietitians, and conferences or research projects intended to
identify and promote good practice. A mid-term evaluation found that the health
programme excelled in promoting networking but appeared to distribute its
projects rather thinly. 54 Nevertheless, this limited volume of resources inevitably
affects the scope for EU-financed action on health.
The new EU health programme runs from 2014 to 2020 with €449.4 million
to spend over that period. It continues within the framework of the health
strategy Together for Health (see section 3.6) 55 as well as the broader “Europe
2020” objectives 56 and has more of a focus on health systems, specifically.
Box 2.5 summarizes the objectives in the legislation. These are objectives that
the EU will pursue in its funding decisions, and the purpose of the programme
is to lend them coherence. Specific calls for funding and funding decisions will
flesh them out.
2.5 New governance: comparison, benchmarking, experts
and networks
Beyond the formal powers of the EU, there is much scope for the EU to play
a highly influential role without any legal tools at all, simply by providing and
facilitating political leadership and with other tools such as benchmarking. There
are also a range of other people and organizations with an interest in EU action
beyond the formal institutions described above. Hence the EU has progressively
developed wider processes of transparency and engagement to enable it to act in
wider areas than formal legal powers allow, and to bring wider groups of people
into the EU processes.
The common threads of these initiatives were spelled out in a 2001 White
Paper on Governance. 57 There are a number of reasons for these initiatives.
First, they allow the EU to have a role, and aspire to ideational leadership,
in areas where its formal powers are weak. Second, they prepare an agenda
that can influence policy debate in the EU as well as in Member States.
Third, at least in theory they increase participation in EU decisions and
thereby increase the information, democratic legitimacy and likelihood of
54 Public Health and Impact Assessment Consortium. Mid-term evaluation of the health programme (2008–
2013). Bologna, Public Health and Impact Assessment Consortium, 2011 (http://ec.europa.eu/health/
programme/docs/mthp_final_report_oct2011_en.pdf accessed 4 July 2014).
55 European Commission. Together for health: a strategic approach for the EU 2008–2013 (COM(2007)630).
Brussels, European Commission, 2007.
56 European Commission. Europe 2020: a strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Brussels,
European Commission, 2010.
57 European Commission. Governance in the European Union: a white paper (COM(2001) 428). Official
Journal, 2001, C 287.