The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) has published a report on policy-making for health in the EU, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, as part of the Better Regulation for Better Health project (BRBH), funded by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI). The health-relevant policy adopted by the European Union (EU) is shaped by a complex policy-making system that seeks to balance the diverse interests, values, and needs of a broad range of societal groups. This system resembles a development between science and art, processing both scientific evidence and political narrative. Recognising that health and politics are inextricably linked, one of EPHA’s strategic objectives is to improve the policy-making system and increase civil society involvement in it - by advocating for change and building capacity within the public health community. The report therefore contributes to this objective by introducing the key framework that structures the EU policy-making system – Better Regulation – and its relevance to health civil society advocacy activities and engagement.
The Better Regulation agenda is the EU’s ‘good governance’ programme, shaping the process by which laws should be adopted and the common ends that they should serve. It is the framework that requires that, for instance, impact assessments be conducted for all new initiatives with significant expected impacts, options for simplification to be explored in all evaluations of existing policy, and all new administrative burdens to be offset by reduced burdens elsewhere. It is also a political agenda – a commitment to reducing ‘red tape’, simplifying legislation, controlling the ‘stock and flow’ of EU law, and reducing the EU’s perceived image as a creator of bureaucracy and burden. As such, it shapes the political and technical space within which health policy is conceived, developed and adopted. With a view to increasing awareness of and engagement with Better Regulation and the politics of the EU policy-making system among the public health community, the aim of this report is to provide a first point of reference for those seeking to understand how EU health policy-making structures work, what role the Better Regulation agenda has in shaping them, how they are relevant to health advocacy and objectives, and what tangible engagement with Better Regulation the public health community might seek.
The report has defined key recommendations for improved engagement of civil society with the Better Regulation programme, including the fact that it should be part of civil society’s advocacy activities, and for civil society to engage with elements such as the Regulatory Scrutiny Board. Civil society should also re-claim the terminology of the agenda, and define what is understood as better, i.e., push for the narrative that better regulation should mean regulation that delivers improved health outcomes. Overall, civil society should also call for more transparency, and continue their work on improving civic space, to support their participation in policymaking.
The full report is available here: https://epha.org/between-art-and-science-policy-making-for-health-in-the-eu/
The project will continue with the publication of a toolkit to support civil society in engaging with the Better Regulation agenda. Contacts:
Clémentine Richer Delforge clementine.richer-delforge@epha.org
Dr Eleanor Brooks Eleanor.Brooks@ed.ac.uk