The EU has reinforced its leadership in global health security by adopting a more proactive and cooperative approach to preparedness and response. Its health security framework seeks to enhance the EU’s capacity to respond to cross-border health threats, strengthening both readiness and resilience.
The Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) plays a critical role in anticipating risks, securing medical countermeasures and coordinating pandemic preparedness and response actions internally as well as with international partners. Amid ongoing geopolitical shifts and reductions in global health financing, HERA’s mandate is increasingly important.
This report draws on a qualitative approach, coupling document analysis and stakeholder interviews, to explore how HERA can strengthen its role and the EU’s broader health security framework. HERA’s focus on medical countermeasures fills previous gaps in the EU system, establishing it as a credible and recognised actor in global health security. Yet stakeholders highlight ongoing challenges, including coordination across the European Commission services, the strategic allocation of funding and in designing partnerships that are both effective and equitable.
Alongside the EU’s Stockpiling and Medical Countermeasures Strategies, the findings of this report underscore HERA’s centrality in crisis preparedness. Yet without clear resources and coordinated mechanisms, its capacity to respond rapidly and effectively to emerging threats may be constrained, limiting the EU’s leadership on the global stage.
To fully achieve HERA’s potential and its contribution to global health preparedness and equity, a clearer, more integrated approach within the EU’s global health framework is essential.
