EUHealthGov were delighted to host Óscar Fernández (Maastricht) on 11 June 2025. Óscar discussed findings from his recent ENSURED report on the Intellectual Property and Public Health Regime Complex (co-authored with Mirko Heinzel), and a forthcoming report on Global Health Security after COVID-19, as well as his current work-in-progress. What follows is a summary of some of the key points from Óscar’s presentation – a recording is available here.
ENSURED is a Horizon Europe project on “Transforming and Defending Multilateralism: European Union Support for more Robust, Effective and Democratic Global Governance” coordinated by Maastricht University. This project is generating further reports on the Pandemic Agreement and on WHO reform.
Regime complexity – characterised by high institutional density – offers a distinctive perspective for examining global health. While there exists significant scholarship on the constitutive fora of regime complexes, there is considerably less on how different actors navigate these, and the EU’s role appears largely overlooked. Fernández is addressing this, inter alia, with a 2025 JCMS article, and current research question of the circumstances under which the EU has pursued an increase in regime complexity in global health.
Regime complexity in connection with global health is characterised by the trilateral cooperation between the WTO, WIPO, and WHO. The EU’s role in this has evolved from initial reluctance in the 1990s to today’s position of being a largely status quo player, highly favourable towards the WTO. This has prompted two key questions of whether the EU seeks an increase in regime complexity, and whether the EU ends up benefitting from increased regime complexity. Answers to these questions can frame the EU in various roles.
Fernández also discussed a forthcoming ENSURED report on the Pandemic Agreement, agreed in April 2025 and recently adopted by the World Health Assembly. This identifies key further challenges including its modest ambition, quick ratifications not being guaranteed, and the WHO’s financial crisis. A further consideration is that while the Pandemic Agreement might be seen as a diplomatic win for the EU (with caveats), it does not improve the EU’s image as a global actor.
A recording of the presentation is available here.
The post EUHealthGov with Óscar Fernández: Navigating Regime Complexity in Global Health: The Role of the European Union appeared first on Ideas on Europe.