Invoking Security to Bypass Procedure
The European Union's Critical Medicines Act
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10070069 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eleanor Brooks (0000-0003-3493-0671, School of Social and Political Science University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, corresponding author), Charlotte Godziewski (0000-0002-7036-2387, Department of International Politics City St George's, University of London London) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1616-1623 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9886 • E-ISSN: 1468-5965 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/jcms.70061 |
| OpenAlex | W7115565279 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 11 |
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 for the democratic legitimacy of EU policy‐making. We argue that, since medicine shortages have been on the EU agenda for nearly a decade and the CMA extends beyond emergency provisions to address long‐term industrial policy, it does not constitute an urgent or exceptional policy issue in the usual sense. Situating the CMA within wider patterns of EU health securitisation, we highlight the risks posed by circumventing procedural safeguards, concluding that this shift may exacerbate perceptions of a democratic deficit within EU governance
Democracy · democratic deficit · Democratic legitimacy · Economic shortage · European commission · European union · Legitimacy · Stakeholder · Global Security and Public Health · Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy · Pharmacovigilance and Adverse Drug Reactions
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |