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The COVID-19 pandemic and previous cross-border health crises have fostered European integration. The article provides a neofunctionalist explanation of the medium- to long-term deepening of the European Union (EU) in the field of public health protection and identifies as a pattern of crisis-driven integration a tight link between health crises and the establishment and strengthening of EU agencies. The European Commission is the central driving force in times of crisis which is exemplified by analysing the area of European health technology assessment and the development towards a health union as a reaction to the COVID-19 crisis. The short term is characterised by recurring standstill and watering down of reform proposals that follow an intergovernmental logic. Still, crises contribute to the choice of critical paths unleashing functional integration dynamics in a long-term perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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