THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION REPORT. Europe in a period of transition

95 European Health Union José Manuel Freire Introduction 2020 will go down in history as the year of the great covid-19 pandemic that surprised the 21st century world, opening our eyes to just how vulnerable we are to risks that we had assumed were far behind us. The pandemic dramatically altered social and economic life across the planet. A year and a half later, despite the availability of effective vaccines, great uncertainty remains on when and how the longed-for post-pandemic normality will come, and regarding the evolution of the SARS-CoV-19 virus in the short, medium and long term. From March 2020 onwards, political agendas in the EU and for all governments around the world, have been monopolised by the health, social, economic and political issues caused by the covid-19 pandemic. In the EU, from March 2020 almost all social and economic activities ground to a halt, causing an 11.1% drop in GDP in the first semester of 2020; its impact on health is clearly demonstrated by the fact that, on 2 July 2021, the EU had totalled 33,184,671 cases and 740,360 deaths. 1 The devastating effects of a viral pandemic unlike anything we might have imagined in the EU has demon- strated just how critical health security is for our society to run normally. Recognition of public health as an es- 1  ECDC. COVID-19 situation update for the EU/EEA, as of 2 July 2021. https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/cases-2019-ncov-eueea sential precondition of the feasibility of modern society has put health firmly at the heart of the EU’s essential policies, leading President Von der Layen to launch the objective of a ‘European Health Union’. Although our analysis of the EU response to covid-19 during 2020 is limited to strictly health-related decisions and policies by the EU, perspective should not be lost regarding the vast importance, also concerning health, of the major economic policy decisions taken by the EU to alleviate the ravages of covid-19 on families’ incomes, on the economy, on employment and on the supply of goods and basic services, topics that will be addressed in other chapters. These decisions critically affect the de- cisive socioeconomic factors of health whose importance can never be over-stated. In this chapter, we will look back over EU health policies during 2020, all exclusively focussed on the health-related challenges raised by the covid-19 pan- demic. To do this, firstly, we will briefly run through the time frame of the EU’s most important health-related initiatives to address covid-19 during 2020, due to its interesting timeline. Secondly, we will review the EU’s more relevant health actions in response to the pan- demic, grouping them into six topics. Finally, we will conclude with a summary assessing the role of the EU during this first year of the covid-19 pandemic, with a very positive impression overall, particularly regarding two key issues: the vaccination strategy and the eco- nomic response to the crisis.