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Between health and the market: the roles of the European Medicines Agency and the European Food Safety Authority

Permanand, Govin and Vos, Ellen (2008) Between health and the market: the roles of the European Medicines Agency and the European Food Safety Authority. Maastricht Faculty of Law working papers (2008/4). Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

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Abstract

This article examines two agencies with a particularly important role to play in human health and safety protection: the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). It seeks to examine their respective roles in relation to health protection and market integration. The discussion outlines the emergence of both agencies and examined their mandates in health protection along with factors impacting on how they execute their functions. Reform initiatives in the aftermath of crises in the fields of pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs were led foremost by the desire of the European institutions to regain trust in their science-based decision-making, while also ensuring health protection and the free movement of medicines and foods. Both the EMEA and EFSA have played an important part in this. While neither agency has the executive power to regulate in the manner of an independent regulatory agency such as the FDA, the article concludes that they both play a decisive role in the context of the internal market policy in the re-regulation of health issues at the EU level and have an impact on national health systems. The article observes that their design and structure, heavily relying on (and to some extent absorbing) national competent authorities mean that they are likely to become true reference points for health-related questions. In this manner both agencies – indeed, the proliferation of European agencies in general – can be seen as elements of the emergent architecture of experimentalist governance in the EU, highlighting the resort to more ‘soft’ mechanisms for deliberation and networking with the various actors involved.

Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL: http://www.unimaas.nl/default.asp?template=werkvel...
Additional Information: © 2008 Govin Permanand and Ellen Vos
Divisions: LSE Health
Subjects: R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe)
Date Deposited: 16 Nov 2009 15:50
Last Modified: 15 Sep 2023 23:13
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/25781

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