In the past few decades there has been an increased integration of communicable disease policies in Europe. The historical roots of this process date back to the mid-nineteenth century, when national authorities realized that the crossboundary spread of diseases cannot be only a matter of national governance but requires common agreements and regulations. In the early 1950s the structuring of the World Health Organization in regional offices further contributed to the definition of Europe as a unit for risk assessments and international health cooperation. More recently the consolidation of the European Union has provided new institutional bases for shaping communicable disease policies at the supranational level. This article reviews these different attempts to protect the European space from diseases. It is argued that changing modes of communicable disease control have not only reflected shifts in public health priorities and institutional contexts but have also been important loci where different understandings of Europe and European political identity emerged and were negotiated. Against this background the article then examines past achievements and future challenges of the current European framework and discusses implications for the wider process of European integration.Communicable disease control has a peculiar political logic. Because of the transnational spread of diseases, prevention and control measures have long challenged existing concepts of territorial sovereignty and required international cooperation. At the same time, the ways governments andJournal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, Vol. 37, No. 6, December 2012 DOI 10.1215/03616878-1813772 © 2012 by Duke University Press Some material in this article is derived from a research project commissioned by the AsiaEurope Foundation, whose support is gratefully acknowledged. The authors alone bear full responsibility for any information reported, interpretation, and the decision to submit for publication. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions.
Advance Publication, published on August 16, 2012 Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law
Copyright 2012 by Duke University Press914 Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law health authorities collaborate are inevitably shaped by the context of international relations, institutional dynamics, and the broader landscape of political culture. The historical development of communicable disease policies in Europe is a good case in point. In many ways, changing modes of European cooperation in public health have reflected contingent meanings of Europe and its relations with other parts of the world.This article aims to shed some light on these issues by analyzing in historical perspective different attempts to protect the European space from communicable diseases, starting with the early International Sanitary Conventions of the nineteenth century to the recent involvement of the European Union (EU). In particular, we review the development of i...