Putting health on the agenda: Practitioner Perspectives - Elizabeth Kuiper, Hosted by EUHealthGov

The rapid spread of COVID-19 across Europe in early 2020, at a relatively early stage in the Von der Leyen Commission’s term of office, raised a number of questions about whether the world could return to “business as usual” as EU-level activity in health received an unprecedented amount of attention. One outcome of this was the launch of a “European Health Union”, which has seen the development of the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Agency (HERA) and the incorporation of wider health projects, such as the Beating Cancer Plan. However, the pandemic is but one challenge faced at EU level and beyond in Europe: ongoing concerns about the climate crisis and the evolving Russian aggression in Ukraine have led to framings such as “perma-crisis”. How health does, and should, feature on policy agendas against this backdrop is an expanding question with a range of answers among a diverse body of stakeholders, from political groups to thinktanks, at both national and EU levels.

Elizabeth Kuiper is Associate Director and Head of the Social Europe and Well-being programme at the European Policy Centre (EPC). Since joining the EPC in 2022, she has led on linking up EPC research on healthcare, social equality, sustainability and economic governance, generating publications and events on topics as diverse as the EU pharmaceutical strategy and the Ukrainian healthcare system, digitalisation and health, and Health in All Policies. This current focus builds on Elizabeth’s background as Executive Director Public Affairs at the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), and national and EU-level roles relating to health policy.

EUHealthGov is a research network, funded by UACES (the University Association for Contemporary European Studies) from 2021 to 2024, with support from the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.