More than a year since Covid-19 struck in Europe, the management of the health emergency at political level has forced to examine the capacities and competences of the various administrations, from local and autonomous government to state power. European Union action has refocused much of the focus on its response to the crisis, as happened in the financial crisis of the previous decade, and the experience of the pandemic has shown the importance of deepening the Union’s health policy framework in order to advance the construction of a European Health Union. On the occasion of the publication of the working document ‘Towards the European Union for Health’, a detailed analysis of the EU’s health skills, the policy response to the pandemic and the areas where progress could be made, we brought together the authors of the document and two major experts on the subject, who will provide perspectives from Spain and from Brussels.