Protecting the public's health across Europe after Brexit
Solutions to maintain and improve a high level of public health protection after the UK leaves the European Union.
The health of citizens across Europe, including the UK, needs to be protected from health threats that know no borders and tackling these health risks effectively requires joined-up policies and action.
This briefing from the Brexit Health Alliance (BHA) and the Faculty of Public Health, a member of the Alliance, sets out how people across Europe currently benefit from the close collaboration between the UK and EU on public health, and proposes solutions to maintain and improve a high level of public health protection after the UK leaves the European Union.
The Alliance is calling for:
- Both the EU Commission and UK government to prioritise the public’s health in negotiations on the future relationship between the UK and the EU.
- A security partnership based on strong coordination between the UK and EU in dealing with serious cross-border health threats, such as pandemics, infectious diseases, safety of medicines (pharmacovigilance) and contamination of the food chain. Ideally, this would be by continuing access to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and other relevant EU agencies, systems and databases.
- Alignment with current and future EU regulatory and health and safety standards relating to (for example) food, medicines, transplant organs and the environment, to avoid the need for replication of inspections and non-tariff barriers at the UK/EU border.
- The UK government to commit to a high level of human health protection when negotiating future free trade and investment agreements.
