Project no. EAHC/2009/Health/05
Developing Public Health Capacity in the EU
A review of the capacity of EU Member States to develop and implement public health policies and interventions

The European Commission (EAHC and DG SANCO) contracted a consortium of organisations representing the major professional organisations in public health in Europe to review public health capacities in Europe and to make recommendations for EU action and support.

The Consortium is formed by EuroHealthNet, EUPHA, IUHPE, ASPHER, and EHMA, under the leadership of the Department of International Health of Maastricht University and with the support of the WHO European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and GEOMED.

The specific objectives of this project are:

• to carry out a detailed review of the capacity of EU Member States to develop and implement public health policies and interventions;
• to identify gaps, needs and common issues;
• to identify a number of suggestions for action where EU support (including programmes and instruments in other policy areas) could provide assistance and added value to strengthen public health capacities.

To achieve the abovementioned objectives, a mixed methodology was used, involving document analysis, questionnaires for key informants, focus groups, in depth case studies and consensus building at country level.

The project started in January 2010 with the development and application of an assessment tool to review public health capacities in the EU member states. This assessment was complemented by a document analysis, focus groups and development of in-depth case studies at country level. The data collected from each country were included in a database. The final report was published in 2013. If you would like to have further information about the report or the project itself, please contact Helmut.Brand@maatrichtuniversity.nl.