White Paper on European Critical Health Infrastructure
White Paper on European Critical Health Infrastructure

Author(s): Not Specified Author
Subject(s): Politics, Welfare systems, Health and medicine and law, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Mednarodni inštitut za bližnjevzhodne in balkanske študije IFIMES
Keywords: Europe; COVID-19; health; infrastructure;
Summary/Abstract: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has highlighted the economic, social, political and structural weaknesses of the European Union. It has resulted not only in human tragedy, but also in political conflict, loss of trust, uncertainty in the future on the part of citizens dealing with lackluster MS and European responses and, ultimately, in an economic crisis whose severity, length and secondary impacts are yet unknown. The likelihood of kneejerk policy reactions in the direction of restricted travel, protectionism and “beggar thy neighbor” policies should concern the leadership of the European Union. The answer to these issues is to begin laying a foundation for a more resilient European Union when it comes to public health crises, one in which good policy mixes with operational capability and strategic communication to ensure both the predictability and the efficacy of responses to future outbreaks. This will require not only the efforts of individual nations and cooperation between them, but also the coordinating capacity of the European Union. This white paper argues that the existing European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection is one of the most important building blocks for future safety from pandemics. It offers, in its European and national iterations (where health is already present in the critical infrastructure taxonomy), a conceptual toolbox for understanding the systemic impact of crises such as the pandemic, including beyond the sphere of health, and the means for planning, organizing and implementing measures to increase the resilience of European societies to such crises.

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