Eleanor Brooks
Biographic Data
| ID | 3604145 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eleanor Brooks |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eleanor |
| FAMILY NAME | Brooks |
| SIGNATURE | BROOKS E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3493-0671 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 56 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1949 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
A failed insurrection? An institutional analysis of the creation of the European Union Social Convergence Framework
This article examines the creation of the European Union’s (EU) Social Convergence Framework (SCF), introduced in 2024 as part of reforms to the EU’s economic governance system. Building on debates about the “socialisation” of the European Semester, we analyse why the SCF succeeded where the previously proposed Social Imbalances Procedure (SIP) failed. Taking a historical institutionalist approach and drawing on theories of gradual institutional …
Impact Assessment as Agenda‐Setting: Procedural Politicking and the Mobilization of Bias in the European Union's Audiovisual Media Services Directive
Though often framed as a technocratic tool, impact assessment is a core element of the political agenda‐setting process. In this article, we show that decisions about what is subject to legislative debate are made during impact assessment; specifically, during the drafting of the assessment report. Using a social process tracing methodology, we analyze the removal from the agenda of provisions for stronger alcohol advertising rules during the rev…
Invoking Security to Bypass Procedure: The European Union's Critical Medicines Act
The European Union's recently proposed Critical Medicines Act (CMA) was published without recourse to standard democratic policy‐making procedures. Framed by the European Commission as an urgent response to a pressing security threat, the CMA was not subject to an impact assessment, and the stakeholder consultation designed to inform its development was both short and last‐minute. In this commentary, we examine the implications of the CMA case fo…
A missed opportunity for public health: How impact assessment shaped EU rules on the marketing of unhealthy commodities to children
The 2015-2018 revision of the European Union's Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which governs the marketing of alcohol and unhealthy food to minors, failed to align with international best practice. Previous research has explained this ‘missed opportunity’ with reference to deficient political will, difficulties advocating for health, and industry pressure. We explore another explanation: the role of the impact assessment (IA) process in sha…
Talkin' Bout a Revolution? Institutional Change in the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility: The Case of Climate Policy
The European Union (EU) post‐COVID‐19 investment and reform programme, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), has been hailed as novel and ambitious, both as a fiscal instrument and as a lever for accelerating progress towards EU climate commitments. Yet, its design also exhibits strong path dependency, drawing on existing processes and commitments. Adapting theories of institutional change and models of hard/soft governance, we argue that t…
Reconceptualising the commercial determinants of health: Bringing institutions in
The concept of the ‘commercial determinants of health’ (CDOH) has been developed by public health researchers as a way to describe the political economy of corporations and the impact of their practices on health, social inequalities and climate change. In this analysis, we assess the conceptual work that has developed this field and the influence of the more established ‘social determinants of health’ models. We highlight the dominance of epidem…
Why meta-regulation matters for public health: The case of the EU better regulation agenda
Meta-regulation – the rules that govern how individual policies are developed and reviewed – has not received much attention in the study of health policy. We argue that these rules, far from value-free and objective, have significant potential to shape policy outputs and, as such, health outcomes. Channelling and operationalising wider paradigms like neoliberalism, they determine, for instance, what is considered ‘good’ policy, how decisions are…
The law of diminishing returns? The challenge of using freedom of information legislation for health policy research
EU health policy in the aftermath of Covid-19: Neofunctionalism and Crisis-Driven Integration
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shook the European Union (EU). The EU responded to the multifaceted challenge with an integrative leap forward. Member States substantially increased their investment in existing health policy tools such as civil protection and financing for health initiatives. There was innovation in EU law, where a process of redefining public health began, and in strategies for vaccines and pharmaceuticals, where the EU too…
European Union health policy after the pandemic: An opportunity to tackle health inequalities
COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated the health inequalities across and between European Union member states. It has also raised the profile of EU health policy and the highlighted the value of European cooperation in health. Early failures to respond adequately, coupled with this increased salience, have given rise to a series of initiatives designed to strengthen and expand the EU’s role in health. This presents an opportunity to address the im…
Political steering in the European Commission: A comparison of the energy and health sectors
Upon taking office as President of the European Commission in 2014, Jean-Claude Juncker initiated a series of reforms to the internal workings of the EU executive. Existing research suggests that these have been successful in increasing political steering, creating a Commission which focuses on fewer fields, controls the policy activism of its officials and produces less legislative output. However, much of this research focuses on the Commission…
The development of EU health policy and the Covid-19 pandemic: Trends and implications
EU health policy is a policy forged in crisis. Whilst maintaining the strict limitations on the EU’s role that are described in the treaties, crises have historically been followed by incremental but integrative policy change. Given this trend, should we be expecting a radical expansion of EU health policy in the aftermath of Covid-19? And, if so, what parameters and characteristics might this new agenda have? As we enter the period in which the …
Whatever happened to the Norwegian Medical Need Clause? Lessons for current debates in EU pharmaceutical regulation
Until 1994, pharmaceutical products seeking market authorisation in Norway were required to demonstrate a fulfilment of unmet medical need. This clause enabled the national regulator to dramatically limit the number of products on the market whilst encouraging price competition to keep drug expenditure low and was credited with encouraging the development of drugs with genuine added therapeutic value and reducing the incidence of antimicrobial re…
Thunderstorm Rainfall
EU health policy in the aftermath of Covid-19: Neofunctionalism and Crisis-Driven Integration
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shook the European Union (EU). The EU responded to the multifaceted challenge with an integrative leap forward. Member States substantially increased their investment in existing health policy tools such as civil protection and financing for health initiatives. There was innovation in EU law, where a process of redefining public health began, and in strategies for vaccines and pharmaceuticals, where the EU too…
The development of EU health policy and the Covid-19 pandemic: Trends and implications
EU health policy is a policy forged in crisis. Whilst maintaining the strict limitations on the EU’s role that are described in the treaties, crises have historically been followed by incremental but integrative policy change. Given this trend, should we be expecting a radical expansion of EU health policy in the aftermath of Covid-19? And, if so, what parameters and characteristics might this new agenda have? As we enter the period in which the …
Talkin' Bout a Revolution? Institutional Change in the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility: The Case of Climate Policy
The European Union (EU) post‐COVID‐19 investment and reform programme, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), has been hailed as novel and ambitious, both as a fiscal instrument and as a lever for accelerating progress towards EU climate commitments. Yet, its design also exhibits strong path dependency, drawing on existing processes and commitments. Adapting theories of institutional change and models of hard/soft governance, we argue that t…
Political steering in the European Commission: A comparison of the energy and health sectors
Upon taking office as President of the European Commission in 2014, Jean-Claude Juncker initiated a series of reforms to the internal workings of the EU executive. Existing research suggests that these have been successful in increasing political steering, creating a Commission which focuses on fewer fields, controls the policy activism of its officials and produces less legislative output. However, much of this research focuses on the Commission…
European Union health policy after the pandemic: An opportunity to tackle health inequalities
COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated the health inequalities across and between European Union member states. It has also raised the profile of EU health policy and the highlighted the value of European cooperation in health. Early failures to respond adequately, coupled with this increased salience, have given rise to a series of initiatives designed to strengthen and expand the EU’s role in health. This presents an opportunity to address the im…
Whatever happened to the Norwegian Medical Need Clause? Lessons for current debates in EU pharmaceutical regulation
Until 1994, pharmaceutical products seeking market authorisation in Norway were required to demonstrate a fulfilment of unmet medical need. This clause enabled the national regulator to dramatically limit the number of products on the market whilst encouraging price competition to keep drug expenditure low and was credited with encouraging the development of drugs with genuine added therapeutic value and reducing the incidence of antimicrobial re…
Thunderstorm Rainfall
Whatever happened to the Norwegian Medical Need Clause? Lessons for current debates in EU pharmaceutical regulation
Until 1994, pharmaceutical products seeking market authorisation in Norway were required to demonstrate a fulfilment of unmet medical need. This clause enabled the national regulator to dramatically limit the number of products on the market whilst encouraging price competition to keep drug expenditure low and was credited with encouraging the development of drugs with genuine added therapeutic value and reducing the incidence of antimicrobial re…
Political steering in the European Commission: A comparison of the energy and health sectors
Upon taking office as President of the European Commission in 2014, Jean-Claude Juncker initiated a series of reforms to the internal workings of the EU executive. Existing research suggests that these have been successful in increasing political steering, creating a Commission which focuses on fewer fields, controls the policy activism of its officials and produces less legislative output. However, much of this research focuses on the Commission…
The development of EU health policy and the Covid-19 pandemic: Trends and implications
EU health policy is a policy forged in crisis. Whilst maintaining the strict limitations on the EU’s role that are described in the treaties, crises have historically been followed by incremental but integrative policy change. Given this trend, should we be expecting a radical expansion of EU health policy in the aftermath of Covid-19? And, if so, what parameters and characteristics might this new agenda have? As we enter the period in which the …
European Union health policy after the pandemic: An opportunity to tackle health inequalities
COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated the health inequalities across and between European Union member states. It has also raised the profile of EU health policy and the highlighted the value of European cooperation in health. Early failures to respond adequately, coupled with this increased salience, have given rise to a series of initiatives designed to strengthen and expand the EU’s role in health. This presents an opportunity to address the im…
Reconceptualising the commercial determinants of health: Bringing institutions in
The concept of the ‘commercial determinants of health’ (CDOH) has been developed by public health researchers as a way to describe the political economy of corporations and the impact of their practices on health, social inequalities and climate change. In this analysis, we assess the conceptual work that has developed this field and the influence of the more established ‘social determinants of health’ models. We highlight the dominance of epidem…
Why meta-regulation matters for public health: The case of the EU better regulation agenda
Meta-regulation – the rules that govern how individual policies are developed and reviewed – has not received much attention in the study of health policy. We argue that these rules, far from value-free and objective, have significant potential to shape policy outputs and, as such, health outcomes. Channelling and operationalising wider paradigms like neoliberalism, they determine, for instance, what is considered ‘good’ policy, how decisions are…
The law of diminishing returns? The challenge of using freedom of information legislation for health policy research
EU health policy in the aftermath of Covid-19: Neofunctionalism and Crisis-Driven Integration
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shook the European Union (EU). The EU responded to the multifaceted challenge with an integrative leap forward. Member States substantially increased their investment in existing health policy tools such as civil protection and financing for health initiatives. There was innovation in EU law, where a process of redefining public health began, and in strategies for vaccines and pharmaceuticals, where the EU too…
A missed opportunity for public health: How impact assessment shaped EU rules on the marketing of unhealthy commodities to children
The 2015-2018 revision of the European Union's Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which governs the marketing of alcohol and unhealthy food to minors, failed to align with international best practice. Previous research has explained this ‘missed opportunity’ with reference to deficient political will, difficulties advocating for health, and industry pressure. We explore another explanation: the role of the impact assessment (IA) process in sha…
Talkin' Bout a Revolution? Institutional Change in the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility: The Case of Climate Policy
The European Union (EU) post‐COVID‐19 investment and reform programme, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), has been hailed as novel and ambitious, both as a fiscal instrument and as a lever for accelerating progress towards EU climate commitments. Yet, its design also exhibits strong path dependency, drawing on existing processes and commitments. Adapting theories of institutional change and models of hard/soft governance, we argue that t…
Impact Assessment as Agenda‐Setting: Procedural Politicking and the Mobilization of Bias in the European Union's Audiovisual Media Services Directive
Though often framed as a technocratic tool, impact assessment is a core element of the political agenda‐setting process. In this article, we show that decisions about what is subject to legislative debate are made during impact assessment; specifically, during the drafting of the assessment report. Using a social process tracing methodology, we analyze the removal from the agenda of provisions for stronger alcohol advertising rules during the rev…
Invoking Security to Bypass Procedure: The European Union's Critical Medicines Act
The European Union's recently proposed Critical Medicines Act (CMA) was published without recourse to standard democratic policy‐making procedures. Framed by the European Commission as an urgent response to a pressing security threat, the CMA was not subject to an impact assessment, and the stakeholder consultation designed to inform its development was both short and last‐minute. In this commentary, we examine the implications of the CMA case fo…
A failed insurrection? An institutional analysis of the creation of the European Union Social Convergence Framework
This article examines the creation of the European Union’s (EU) Social Convergence Framework (SCF), introduced in 2024 as part of reforms to the EU’s economic governance system. Building on debates about the “socialisation” of the European Semester, we analyse why the SCF succeeded where the previously proposed Social Imbalances Procedure (SIP) failed. Taking a historical institutionalist approach and drawing on theories of gradual institutional …
Political science (11 works) · European union (8 works) · Business (7 works) · Economics (7 works) · Public Administration (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Public Administration (6 works) · Corporate governance (5 works) · European Union Policy and Governance (5 works)