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 represents something between a science and an art, processing both scientific evidence and political narrative. Recognising that health and politics are inextricably connected, 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. This report contributes to the above objective by introducing the key framework that structures the EU policy-making system – Better Regulation – and its relevance to (health) civil society advocacy and engagement.
The report is produced in the context of the Better Regulation for Better Health project (BRBH), funded by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI). The Better Regulation agenda is the EU’s ‘good governance’ programme, dictating the process by which laws should be adopted and the common ends that they should serve. It is the framework which requires that, for instance, impact assessment be conducted for all new initiatives with significant expected impacts, options for simplification be explored in all evaluations of existing policy, and all new administrative burdens 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 or 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.