Tracking the EU Global Health Strategy
The EU Global Health Strategy, launched in 2022, provides a unified framework of the EU’s external action when it comes to addressing global health challenges through equity, solidarity and multilateral cooperation and establishes the EU’s ambition for leadership in this area. Council conclusions on the strategy were adopted by the Council on 29 January 2024.
Compared to the last strategy from 2010, the 2022 document is more extensive and ambitious, taking a so-called Health in all Policies Approach. More broadly, the document reflects a move away from seeing global health as solely a matter of development cooperation.
Rather, the strategy is also framed as the “external dimension of the European health union” and a “cornerstone of the Global Gateway strategy”. In this sense, it positions global health as an essential part of EU foreign policy and strategic autonomy.
Developed against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising health inequalities, and climate-related health threats, the strategy also aligns with global priorities including the Sustainable Development Goals. It prioritizes pandemic preparedness, health security, and equitable access to medicines and vaccines while highlighting the importance of strengthening partnerships with international organizations and low- and middle-income countries.
The strategy contains three overarching priorities:
Deliver better health and well-being for people across their life course
Strengthen health systems and advance universal health coverage
Prevent and combat health threats, including pandemics, applying a One Health approach
To this end, the strategy also outlines 20 key principles that guide prioritization and direction of investment of the EU for global health until 2030.
In general, the strategy was well received by stakeholders, with some lamenting a lack of attention to climate and planetary health as well as specific provisions on equity and access. The main concerns expressed however have been related to financing and implementation for the ambitious guiding principles. The latter concern was also considered to be the main shortcoming of the 2010 strategy, as it was not followed up with structured monitoring and reporting.
For this reason, tracking progress when it comes to implementation and resource allocation of the 2022 strategy is of particular importance for stakeholders and related policy debates.
In 2024, the European Parliament Research Service conducted a foresight study to assess the resilience of the strategy to various crisis scenarios.
Taking stock of the progress, activities, and investments aligned with the EU’s Global Health Strategy
The strategy’s guiding principle 20 deals with the assessment of progress through monitoring and assessment. To this end, the strategy commits to development of metrics and indicators through a member state Join Action financed through the EU4Health program. The document states that such metrics and indicators will be made publicly available and that the Commission will carry out a mid-term review as well as a final evaluation of the strategy’s implementation in 2030.
Moreover, the Commission commits in this section of the strategy to keeping the European Parliament, the Council and civil society informed about financing and implementation through regular high-level exchanges and publication of a report “in principle every two years”. The yearly Global Health Policy Forum is mentioned in this context.
However, to date the Commission has not released its first biannual report. While the formal monitoring and evaluation framework developed in the Joint Action seems to be under way, it has so far not been made public.
This page is dedicated to taking stock of the EU’s activities and investments related to the intended actions outlined in the strategy.
CEPS has developed the dashboard below to outline the activities included in the strategy and associated actions and investments the EU has taken in alignment with the activities.
This dashboard does not reflect “progress” or determine “success”, which is difficult to do as these concepts have yet to be defined.
CEPS has created the dashboard below to map out actions taken based on the activities included in the EU Global Health strategy. The dashboard is organized by the 7 sections and 20 guiding principles outlined in the strategy.
The evolving role of the EU in the global health space
Tracking changes in EU investment and action in global health as of May 2025
Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa aid and development including in vaccine manufacturing in response to the withdrawal of bilateral funds from the United States
On April 6, 2025, Germany pledged to the WHO in response to the US withdrawing funds to the WHO.
Mapping Players, Initiatives, and Instruments in the EU global health space
EU engagement in global health initiatives, partnerships, and coordinated efforts
Initiative
Scope
EU Role
EU Contribution
