Key messages

• Although the primary responsibility for health systems within the European Union (EU) lies with its Member States, the EU also has many tools that can support the strengthening of health systems.
• Many of the EU’s tools can provide support even though strengthening health systems is not their primary objective, such as the European Semester, the Cohesion Policy Funds, Horizon Europe and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
• The available tools address different parts of change processes. Making best use of these instruments typically requires combining various EU tools with different objectives across multiple stages of the change process.
• The need to combine diverse tools creates the challenge for Member States of being aware of many different tools and their potential to support health systems, and in aligning objectives and processes between health objectives and the requirements of those tools. There are some examples of technical assistance from the EU to help with doing this, although none are specifically focused on health systems strengthening.
• There is potential to combine support from the EU with support from other sources, such as national and regional instruments or other international bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO), although this also presents countries with the challenge of combining instruments with diverse objectives and processes.
• The EU’s support to health systems respects the primary responsibility of EU countries for their own health systems. Nevertheless, being able to draw on EU support has been increasingly important, in particular for Member States that have joined since 2004, and will become even more vital in the coming years.
• As health systems across Europe deal with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is scope for greater collaboration between individual countries and at EU level to make best use of EU tools to strengthen health systems.

Contents

• Executive summary
• POLICY BRIEF
  • Introduction
  • What are the challenges?
  • Process of change
  • How might European tools help?
  • EU policy statements
  • Information and benchmarking
  • Funding for infrastructures
  • Technical assistance
  • Case studies
  • What is the evaluation of EU tools for improving health and care systems?
  • Conclusions
• APPENDIX 1: Overall mapping of European tools
• REFERENCES
• Joint Policy Briefs

All rights reserved. The Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization welcomes requests for permission to reproduce or translate its publications, in part or in full.

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers’ products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the World Health Organization in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters.

All reasonable precautions have been taken by the World Health Organization to verify the information contained in this publication. However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of the material lies with the reader. In no event shall the World Health Organization be liable for damages arising from its use. The views expressed by authors, editors, or expert groups do not necessarily represent the decisions or the stated policy of the World Health Organization.

Box

What is a Policy Brief?