After the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Union (EU) introduced several reforms to improve its crisis response capabilities. However, doubts remain as to the complexity of current governance arrangements. We review recent reforms and propose 19 recommendations. These include clarifying the relationship between the institutions involved in crisis management; streamlining scientific advice; coordinating IT platforms on medical countermeasures used by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the HealthEmergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA); streamlining and expanding funding sources for R&D; improving data flows; and strengthening the EU’s ability to communicate with the general public. All these measures can be adopted without EU Treaty reforms.