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Article History

Received: 8 February 2025

Accepted: 8 September 2025

First Online: 5 November 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: This project involved non-interventional expert interviews with adult public officials acting in their professional capacity (April–May 2024). Under EUBA policy in force at the time of data collection, these interviews did not require prior ethics committee review because they involved no interventions or sensitive personal data and any quotations are anonymised. Before journal submission, the analysis and reporting protocol for these interviews–including confidentiality, data-protection (including GDPR) and data-storage procedures–was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of EUBA (Protocol No. EKEUBA/4/2024; approved 09 December 2024). All procedures were in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments and the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.

: All participants provided verbal informed consent by telephone prior to participation (April–May 2024). For the in-person interview, consent was re-confirmed using a standard script and documented in contemporaneous research notes immediately before the interview; for the two email-based interviews, consent was re-confirmed at the start of the exchange via official embassy email accounts and recorded in the research log. Verbal consent was used to avoid collecting signed identifiers from high-profile public officials. In all cases, participants were informed of the study’s purpose, the voluntary nature of participation and the right to withdraw at any time, confidentiality safeguards, the intended use of anonymised quotations in publications, and data-protection and storage procedures. The consent confirmation used was: “Participation is voluntary; you may stop at any time. Your statements may be quoted in anonymised form in academic publications; we will protect confidentiality and store data securely. Do you consent to proceed?” Each participant gave an affirmative response.