The European Union and Infectious Diseases: Explanations for Policy and Legal Reform

Abstract

Over the past two decades, infectious disease control and prevention increasingly have become a part of the European Union�s competences and it has developed numerous policies and institutions in the field. This �Europeanization� of infectious diseases, whilst implicitly accepted in much of the scholarship, has been historically largely unexplored and under-explained.1 This paper seeks to contribute to the growing body of research into the explanations for European integration and policymaking in the sphere of infectious diseases. The paper utilises punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) to explain what drives EU action and integration in communicable diseases. PET is a useful theory in this area because it offers an explanation not only of why policy and legal change occurs when it does, but also why it occurs at particular levels of government, a key issue in the EU and its relationship with member states. The paper also draws on securitisation and spillover theories as complementary theories that, in the EU context, lead to a stronger use of PET. The paper seeks to achieve three aims. First, to explore what drives the EU�s policymaking in the field of infectious disease control. Second, to examine why the EU, as well as member states, became an institutional locus for law and policy reform in this area. Lastly, to explore the implications of the findings for predicting future developments in this field and for the application of PET to the EU. Section 1 of the paper explains PET and the selection of case studies. The paper then applies PET to two case studies to explain the evolving role of the EU in infectious disease control and prevention. Section 2 examines the 2003�04 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Section 3 looks at the 2014�16 Ebola outbreak. Section 4 assesses the usefulness of PET in predicting the EU�s future role in infectious disease policy, and provides a brief summary of suggested changes that PET should incorporate in the context of the EU.