Institutional Build-up of EU Health Actors

Abstract

The growth of substantive EU public health and individual health policy and law is matched by a historic build-up of EU institutional actors. The institutional expansion has increased the EU’s capacity for law- and policy-making in the field of health and as such the possibility for the growth of EU power in this area. This chapter traces the evolution and growing presence of EU institutional actors in human health. It outlines the relevance of the growing institutional capacity for creating EU health law and policy. Subsequently a sketch is drawn of the emergence of EU institutional involvement in health policy—while taking into consideration that it may not be possible to create an exhaustive overview of all health actors involved at the EU level. This outline illustrates the growth of a variety of institutional actors and the expanding number of ways these engage in health policymaking. Moreover, the chapter demonstrates various ways in which EU institutional involvement in health is continuously expanding and changing. It illustrates that there is ample opportunity for formal actors with legislative or regulatory powers to be involved in informal processes of coordinating policy in the shadow of hierarchy. The growing institutional presence of the EU in health policy over time, and the possible shift in power to the EU this can entail, again confronts us with the pressing issue of its impact on fundamental rights and values in health.