On Tuesday 5 November 2024, the EUHealthGov network held its second event. This one-day knowledge exchange workshop brought together academics, policymakers and practitioners to discuss health law and governance in the context of growing uncertainty and intertwined crises. The COVID-19 pandemic has not unfolded in isolation from other overlapping, interacting, and mutually reinforcing crises: from climate change, the war in Ukraine and in Palestine, sharply rising socioeconomic inequities and the cost-of-living crisis, to an exacerbated distrust in liberal democratic institutions, Brexit, and the rise of the far-right and Euroscepticism reflected in the newly elected European Parliament. At the same time, EU law and policy appears increasingly characterised by a state of permanent crisis, which institutionalises governance architectures and tools associated with emergency responses.
The purpose of this workshop was to exchange ideas, experience, and work-in-progress around one question: how do contemporary uncertainties and crises affect health law, policy, and governance in the EU, the UK, and their evolving relationship?