The COVID-19 outbreak has heightened ongoing political debate about the international joint procurement of medicines and medical countermeasures. The European Union (EU) has developed what remains largely contractual and decentralized international procurement cooperation. The corona crisis has broadened and deepened public debate on such cooperation, in particular on the scope of cooperation, solidarity in the allocation of such cooperation, and delegation of cooperative decision-making. Crucial to political debate about these issues are public attitudes that constrain and undergird international cooperation.

The team, consisting of Roel Beetsma, Brian Burgoon, Anniek de Ruijter (all University of Amsterdam) Francesco Nicoli (Ghent University) and Frank Vandenbroucke (currently Minister of Health and Social Affairs in the Belgian federal Government) conducted a survey including a randomized survey experiment (conjoint analysis) on a representative sample in five European countries in March 2020, informed by legal and policy debate on medical cooperation.

The research is part of the ACES-funded Interdisciplinary Research Project The feasibility of European solidarity and the design of institutions.