While Covid19 is still affecting millions of individuals all over the world, the policy debate on “how to make this the last pandemic” has started. In this context the reform of the International Health Regulation (2005) emerged as a main area of controversy. In December 2020 the European Union has proposed to launch an international process to negotiate a new international treaty and establish legally binding rules and sanctions for member states and international organisations. The ambitious “pandemic treaty” has been welcomed by the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, but it has also found strong opposition from United States, China, Russia as well as from developing and poor countries. On December 1st 2021 the World Health Assembly reached consensus to start a negotiation process to propose a “convention, agreement or other international instrument” on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. The EU proposal for a full pandemic treaty is therefore still on the table although it has been supplemented by other – less stringent – legal options. Based on documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with key actors in this paper we a) analyse the strategic, political and ideational reasons behind the decision on the part of the EU to take the lead in the process and b) explain the main political economy constraints to its success. The empirical analysis allows for a reflection on the political limits of EU normative power in the context of global health.
