ABSTRACT
Defining European Union public health policy is hard: because the place of public health in the EU is new and still under debate; and because the borders and meaning of public health are less agreed than its scholars and practitioners might think. This introductory chapter first addresses the problem of defining public health. The second section addresses the issue of public health policy in the European Union, identifying it and separating it from the very substantial economic policies associated with the EU that also have economic effects. It argues that the public health policies of the EU are concentrated in three areas: the EU as a global actor (with repercussions inward on the EU itself); the EU as a supporter of health systems; and the EU as a public health regulator in its own right. The third section presents the chapters in the book.
