ABSTRACT
Europe is variously a geographical, politico-legal and cultural concept. Public health and hygiene have a long tradition in Europe. European health politics has three broad groups of players: European-level public agencies (including WHO and European Union); national governments; and non-governmental organisations – which may be single-issue, single-industry or broad. The area of environment and health has brought the European WHO office and the European Union together – but also shows the differences in approach between them. The emphasis on 'health protection' rather than health services in the Treaty of Maastricht gave a primary direction towards public health for the Commission's health programme. The proposals for the 2007–2013 European Union budget include a substantial increase in funding for research, including health research. European health research has traditionally meant laboratory-based research. The 2002–2006 European Union health research programme was dominated by genomics, with the support of the pharmaceutical industry, while public health research received little funding and attention.
