Europe of patients, Europe for patients: The Europeanization of healthcare policies by European Patients' Organizations

Vololona Rabeharisoa (1) , Orla O'Donovan (2)

1 CSI i3 - Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation i3
2 Department of Applied Social Studies

The last two decades have witnessed an efflorescence of European lobbying organizations, including European civil society organizations (Lahusen 2004). Lobbying activity is mainly clustered around enterprise and environmental policy, domains in which the EU has greatest regulatory competencies. However, health has been identified as the fastest growing lobbying sector (Coen 2007). Patients' organizations have been part of the 'rush to Europe'. This domain is of particular significance because healthcare is a major area of the welfare state in which the EU has in the past had little involvement, but one which has in recent years witnessed an increasing Europeanization of policy (Greer et al. 2008). To date, very few studies have explored the species of organizations that European patients' organizations (EPOs) constitute, and the form of activism they develop. This article examines these two issues.

Domaines: Sociologie

Vololona Rabeharisoa, Orla O'Donovan. Europe of patients, Europe for patients: The Europeanization of healthcare policies by European Patients' Organizations. 2013. ⟨hal-00780553⟩