Ferreira, Maria Militão2024-04-222024-04-222022-12Ferreira, Maria Militão. 2022. "European Multilevel Governance in the Health Sector: The Discursive Construction of a European Health Union." The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Civic and Political Studies 18 (1): 59-76. doi:10.18848/2327-0071/CGP/v18i01/59-76.http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/30786The paper analyses how, between 2020 and 2022, the von der Leyen European Commission employed discursive legitimization strategies to endorse the proposal for a European Health Union. There is a literature gap regarding the discursive construction of a European Health Union. Departing from discursive strategies of legitimization and the distinction between Type I and Type II systems of multi-level governance, the paper addresses the following research conundrum: How can it be argued that the von der Leyen European Commission’s discourse about the need to build a European Health Union favors a particular type of multi-level governance in the health sector? The paper argues that the discursive strategies employed by the von der Leyen European Commission to legitimize the idea of a European Health Union reveal a preference for a Type I system combined with some elements of a Type II multi-level governance system.engEuropean Health Union; Strategies; Multi-level Governance System.journal article10.18848/2327-0071/CGP/v18i01/59-76