As long as economic growth remains the EU’s main objective, it will not be well prepared for health threats

The Covid-19 outbreak has prompted a variety of proposals for improving the EU’s capacity to tackle future pandemics. Charlotte Godziewski argues that while there has been much discussion about technical reforms, there has been little attention paid to the role that economic and political ideologies have in shaping health outcomes. We cannot talk about better equipping EU states to face health threats without talking about the underlying norms guiding the EU’s actions.