While many health outcomes, such as disease surveillance, pandemic preparedness, and scientific knowledge, possess characteristics of global public goods, the systems and resources needed to produce them remain unevenly distributed and increasingly shaped by geopolitical competition. This paper examines how global health can be strengthened as a true global public good through improved international cooperation, exploring how the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) can drive this effort. The paper highlights how fragmented governance, protectionist policies, and unequal access to medical countermeasures undermined collective responses during the Covid-19 pandemic and continue to weaken global health resilience.
Against this backdrop, the authors identify three strategic areas where HERA can play a transformative role: surveillance and threat monitoring, health innovation, and supply chain data sharing. They propose measures to improve interoperability between surveillance systems, promote equitable access to research and innovation, strengthen technology transfer, and increase transparency in pharmaceutical supply chains. The paper further argues that HERA’s unique institutional position enables it to coordinate actors across sectors and borders, helping the EU advance both global health resilience and its own international influence. Ultimately, the study calls for a more cooperative, inclusive, and system-oriented approach to health governance that treats health security as a shared global responsibility rather than a tool of national competition.
