Godziewski, C. and Rushton, S. orcid.org/0000-0003-1055-9871 (2024) HERA-lding more integration in eealth? Examining the discursive legitimation of the European Commission's new Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 49 (5). pp. 831-854. ISSN 0361-6878
Abstract
Context: Since COVID-19, the European Commission (EC) has sought to expand its activities in health through the development of a European Health Union and within it the Health Emergencies Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).
Methods: The authors applied a discourse analysis to documents establishing HERA to investigate how the EC legitimated the creation of this institution. They focused on how it framed health emergencies, how it framed the added value of HERA, and how it linked HERA to existing EU activities and priorities.
Findings: Their analysis demonstrates that security-based logics have been central to the EC's legitimation of HERA in alignment with a “securitization of health” occurring worldwide in recent decades. This legitimation can be understood as part of the EC's effort to promote future integration in health in the absence of new competences.
Conclusions: Securitization has helped the EC raise its profile in health politically without additional competences, thereby laying the groundwork for potential future integration. Looking at the discursive legitimation of HERA sheds light not only on whether the EC is expanding its health powers but also how it strategizes to do so. HERA, while constrained, allows the EC to further deepen security-driven integration in health.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. Except as otherwise noted, this author-accepted version of a journal article published in Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law is made available via the University of Sheffield Research Publications and Copyright Policy under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | COVID-19 response; EU health governance; health security; political determinants of health; securitization; Humans; Civil Defense; COVID-19; Disaster Planning; European Union |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 18 Sep 2024 08:13 |
Last Modified: | 18 Sep 2024 08:15 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Duke University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1215/03616878-11257008 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:217342 |
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Filename: Accepted manuscript_Godziewski and Rushton 2024.pdf
Licence: CC-BY 4.0