Authors: Alexandros Kentikelenis (Bocconi University) and Leonard Seabrooke (Copenhagen Business School)

Abstract: This working paper asks how the European Union and its Member States—acting as ‘Team Europe’—convert resources, expertise, and networks into influence in global health governance despite enduring competence constraints and coordination challenges. Building on earlier mapping of Europe’s institutional positioning in global health (NAVIGATOR Working Paper D6.1), it analyses how venue choice shapes both the opportunities for influence and the costs of collaboration, and how different forms of European leverage perform across these settings. In particular, we develop a portable analytical lens centred on two linked elements:

• Venue choice: where Team Europe acts (multilateral institutions, regional partnerships, or bilateral Team Europe Initiatives). Different venues structure voice and representation, operational control and measurability, and transaction and coordination costs in distinct ways.
• European leverage: how Team Europe seeks influence by mobilising power, technocratic expertise, and policy networks (coalitions, diplomatic coordination, convening).

Empirically, we use structured, focused comparisons, triangulating policy and programme documents with semi-structured interviews to reconstruct key decision points, trace leverage mechanisms, and identify observable outputs and intermediate outcomes.

Keywords: Global health governance; Team Europe; International Health Regulations; Pandemic Agreement; Vaccine manufacturing in Africa

Citation Recommendation: Kentikelenis, Alexandros and Seabrooke, Leonard (2026). “How the EU and its Member States Exercise Leverage Across Global Health Venues”. NAVIGATOR working paper, WP. 6, D.2 (February), pp. 1-24. https://eunav.eu/