European Union

On 25 June 2026, EUHealthGov hosted Dr Chloé Bérut (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) for a presentation on digital health and the transformation of EU health policymaking.

Chloé presented the results of her MSCA postdoctoral research project, which focused on digital health interoperability. Interoperability refers to the ability of data to circulate between different computer systems. Ensuring interoperability of health data across member states is the EU’s priority in relation to digital health. Chloé emphasised that even though this may seem like a purely technical issue, questions of interoperability are inherently political.

Her research investigated these political dimensions, looking at whether and how interoperability – and digitalisation more broadly – create new decision-making dynamics at EU level. The findings she presented were based on two case studies: EU cooperation around COVID-19 contact-tracing apps and the ongoing development of the European Health Data Space (EHDS). Health data, she noted, represents a pioneer case of EU-level data interoperability governance.

She first explored the role of private actors and illustrated the enormous power that tech giants now have in the sphere of health(care) policy through the digitalisation of healthcare. Their ownership of the digital infrastructure means they can shape policy either directly and/or indirectly. In the case of the contact-tracing app, she explained how Google and Apple announced that their systems would only support decentralised contact tracing apps, which effectively took away the choice for member states to decide whether to use a centralised or decentralised system. In the case of the EHDS, tech giants tend to offer the most competitive digital environment, placing them in a strategically influential position. In the Q&A, the question of how the EU’s digital strategy is informed by the EU’s goal to ensure strategic autonomy – and whether the reliance on US tech giants is perceived as a vulnerability – was further discussed.

A second theme presented by Chloé was how and where decisions about interoperability standards are made at EU level. She identified the European Commission as leading the process and using the scientific evidence deriving from EU-funded digital health projects to inform its position and approach. A major finding she put forward is that these EU-funded research projects should be understood as a form of governance, as they provide the standards and knowledge base which inform future decision-making. This point was further discussed in the Q&A, where Chloé elaborated on the complexity and ‘messy’ dynamics of how these projects feed into policymaking.

Chloé’s presentation also highlighted that the pandemic gave the European Commission the political space to coordinate health data, and that its performance and ability to showcase competence mattered more than the need to politically justify EU-level action. She also reflected on how digitalisation can lead to a ‘technologization of political debate’, and that this runs the risk of oversimplifying complex issues, and exacerbating inequalities. An example here was the ‘opt-in/opt-out’ debate, which gives citizens the impression of control over their health data through a binary choice, while the question of consent in a legal sense is in fact much more complex. Finally, her findings revealed new political cleavages emerging in debates over digitalisation, where Green and far-right parties depart (for varying reasons) from the consensus uniting the other parties.

Speaker bio: Dr Chloé Bérut is an MSCA postdoctoral researcher at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Her work focuses on digital health in the European Union, the ways in which these policies are shaped at the EU level, and how they influence domestic policymaking in this sector. More recently, her research has expanded beyond the field of health to explore broader questions about how digitalization transforms EU policymaking across different sectors. Her work has been published in several academic journals and edited volumes, including Governance, European Policy Analysis, and West European Politics.

The post EUHealthGov with Dr Chloé Bérut: Digital Health and the transformation of EU health policymaking appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

The next meeting of the Committee on Security and Defence (SEDE) is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, 15 July 2026 from 9:00 - 12:30 and 14:30 - 18:30 and Thursday, 16 July 2026 from 9:00 - 12.30 in Brussels (room TBC).

Further information about the SEDE meetings can be found here.
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SEDE missions 2026:

• Canada - 26-28 May 2026
• Taiwan - 30 March - 2 April 2026
• Poland and Czechia - 16-18 February 2026
• Ukraine - 5-6 February 2026

SEDE missions 2025:

• Djibouti - 27-29 October 2025
  
• Greenland - 15-19 September 2025
  
• Norway - 27-30 May 2025
• Moldova and Ukraine - 14-17 April 2025
  
• Bosnia and Herzegovina - 24-27 February 2025
• Israel and Palestine - 5-8 February 2025

SEDE missions 2024:

• United Kingdom - 28-30 October 2024
• Ukraine - 25-26 October 2024

SEDE Committee meetings' calendar 2026
SEDE Committee meetings' calendar 2025
EP calendar 2026
Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

INTERIM REPORT in view of the consent procedure on the Political, Economic and Cooperation Strategic Partnership Agreement between the EU and Mexico
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on International Trade
Borja Giménez Larraz, Javi López

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Length of video : 65'

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

The draft law aims to respond to the new security environment shaped by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, where fast and low-cost defence innovation cycles are critical.
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
Committee on Security and Defence

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

The draft law aims to respond to the new security environment shaped by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, where fast and low-cost defence innovation cycles are critical.
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
Committee on Security and Defence

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

The draft law aims to respond to the new security environment shaped by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, where fast and low-cost defence innovation cycles are critical.
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
Committee on Security and Defence

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

AMENDMENTS 1 - 497 - Draft report Hybrid warfare and the protection of the EU’s territorial integrity and critical security and defence infrastructure
Committee on Security and Defence
Rasa Juknevičienė

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

On Thursday 25 June (11.15-12.15), the Members of the AFET Committee, jointly with its sub-Committee on Human Rights (DROI), will hold an exchange of views with Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to discuss global human rights challenges and efforts to ensure their promotion and protection worldwide.
Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Length of video : 30'

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Today, the Council decided to temporarily restrict visa provision for Somali nationals after the Commission assessed cooperation on readmission as insufficient.

The Council adopted two regulations enacting the EU's tariff reductions set out in the EU-US Joint Statement, while ensuring robust safeguards and preserving the necessary flexibility.

President of the Eurogroup, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, travels to Budapest, where he will meet the Hungarian Prime Minister and the Hungarian Minister of Finance.

Council agrees position tosimplify and strengthen food and feed safety requirements.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2026/1357 of 15 June 2026 amending Decision (CFSP) 2023/891 concerning restrictive measures in view of actions destabilising the Republic of Moldova.

The Council today agreed its negotiating position on the review of the sustainable finance disclosure regulation which aims to simplify current rules to the benefit of the EU’s financial sector and investors.

The Council today agreed its negotiating position on the review of the rules underpinning the pan-European private pension scheme, or PEPP.

The Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional deal on the regulation to facilitate the e-declaration of posted workers. The regulation will reduce the administrative burden for businesses by fully digitalising the submission of posting declarations and for national authorities by facilitating the monitoring of the compliance with the posting of workers directive.

The EU Council and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement on the sixth revision of the carcinogens, mutagens and reprotoxic substances directive (CMRD), which updates the rules on exposure to hazardous substances in the workplace.