NVivo supporting data files for 'HERA-lding more integration in health? Examining the discursive legitimation of the European Commission’s new Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority'

Supporting NVivo files and codebook for the article 'HERA-lding more integration in health? Examining the discursive legitimation of the European Commission’s new Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority'.

ARTICLE ABSTRACT:

Context: Since COVID-19, the European Commission (EC) has sought to expand its activities in health through the development of a 'European Health Union' and within it, the Health Emergencies Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).

Methods: We applied a discourse analysis on documents establishing HERA to investigate how the creation of this institution was legitimated by the EC. We focused on how it framed health emergencies; how it framed the added value of HERA; and how it linked HERA to existing EU activities and priorities.

Findings: Our analysis demonstrates that security-based logics have been central to the EC’s legitimation of HERA – in alignment with a ‘securitization of health’ occurring worldwide in recent decades. This legitimation can be understood as part of the EC’s effort to promote future integration in health in the absence of new competencies.

Conclusions: Securitization has helped the EC raise its profile in health politically, without additional competencies. The EC is thereby laying the groundwork for potential future integration. Looking at the discursive legitimation of HERA sheds light not only on whether the EC is expanding its health powers, but also how it strategizes to do so. HERA, while constrained, allows the EC to further deepen security-driven integration in health.

The following documents were used for analysis:

Introducing HERA, the European Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority, the next step towards completing the European Health Union

Commission Decision establishing the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority

Proposal for a Council Regulation on a framework of measures for ensuring the supply of crisis-relevant medical countermeasures in the event of a public health emergency at Union level.

European Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority (HERA): Getting ready for future health emergencies