The Lancet Regional Health – Europe | January 2024

The European Union has historically left health policy decisions to individual member states, cooperating only on issues like cross-border healthcare and medicine safety. However, the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for collective action across borders. In response, in October 2020, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for the creation of a “European Health Union”. In this contribution McKee and De Ruijter propose a path forward in terms of content and process for developing a more comprehensive vision on the policy content and the process.