Power and governance in times of the pandemic: The European Vaccines strategy and the role of the Commission

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is once again at the epicentre of a new challenge: a global health crisis, whose duration, scale and impact on European integration are still unknown. Indeed, although the Union has managed to go forward with some political and institutional solutions to the pandemic based on solidarity and unity, the EU´s fragilities as a regional and global player have once again been exposed. Notwithstanding the substantive literature available on the EU’s actual response to the pandemic, little attention has been paid to the political and normative constraints that have shaped the Union’s reactions to the crisis. On this basis, the current study assesses to what extent has the European Union had the authority to manage the pandemic, and to what degree has there been any change in its supranational model of governance, especially in the role of the European Commission in shaping policy outcomes. The answers to the first question require an analysis and assessment of the EU’s competences in the health field and which have determined the European response to the pandemic, mainly in legal and institutional terms. In order to answer the second question, the work draws on the theoretical discussion on European governance under crisis. With the goal of testing the strength of the EU’s supranational model of governance, the present analysis reviews empirical evidence regarding the political role of the Commission in the Union’s most pre-eminent health endeavours - the European common vaccination plan. The chapter argues that the current European modus operandi determined the actual response of the EU to the pandemic. The Union’s governing model has been duly adapted rather than fundamentally reformed. Nonetheless, the Commission’s political role and leading ambition in coordinating common responses and drive policy agendas have been elevated.