In the context of the development towards a European Health Union, there are considerations for improving the access to medicines through setting up a permanent system of EU joint procurement. In their article, Baute and De Ruijter distinguish three dimensions of the policy design that are relevant within the actual debate and define the nature and intensity of EU health solidarity: scope, allocation and decision-making level. They investigate the extent to which citizens’ responsiveness to these policy dimensions of EU joint procurement of medicines is driven by Euroscepticism, egalitarianism or perceived threat. They conclude that responsiveness is loosely structured along two traditional divides: pro-EU versus anti-EU and pro-egalitarian versus antiegalitarian. Moreover, they observed that Euroscepticism is an important driving factor behind preferences about both the principle of allocation and the level of decision-making.

This article has been published in the Journal of European Public Policy