Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges not only with respect to states but also to international organisations, including the European Union (EU). In the present article, the authors focus precisely on the case of the EU.
They provide an overview of powers which the EU possesses in the area of public health and they also present the recent proposals which aim at establishing the European Health Union or at better coordinating free movement of persons and goods upon the EU level. The pandemic has pointed to series of shortcomings in the functioning of the present EU system which is designed to eliminate the serious cross-border threats to health.
At the same time, however, the pandemic has demonstrated the importance which the cooperation between states, their mutual solidarity and the support from the EU have with regard to combatting serious cross-border health threats.