The role of the EU and the US in shaping WHO negotiations for a pandemic Treaty and the implications for regime complexity

Following the EU proposal for a Pandemic Treaty and the US proposal for a revision of existing World Health Organization (WHO) regulations, a two-track negotiation process has taken place since 2021 focusing on the drafting of a framework convention and of revision of the WHO regulations, and is expected to lead to a final deal in May 2024. By tracing the process that has lead to the current state of the negotiations and to the final agreement and by analysing the text of the deal, this paper aims at addressing the following question: What is the impact of the EU and of the US proposals on the resulting global pandemics regime? The paper will test the hypothesis that the final deal will mirror a compromise between the two proposals, which will ultimately water down the EU -sponsored multilateral solution and reinforce the current lack of internal coherence and complexity the global pandemics regime.