Romania will continue technical discussions on health technology assessment with a view to moving the issue forward in the Council. This was said by Romanian Health Minister Sorina Pintea on Tuesday 22 January in front of MEPs from the Committee on the Environment and Public Health.
The draft regulation on health technology assessment is the only legislative dossier inherited by the Romanian Presidency of the Council. This text introduces "common clinical evaluations" to determine the added value of a new medicinal product or certain new medical devices in order to help Member States take decisions on pricing and reimbursement (see EUROPE 11951). The European Parliament has already given its opinion on this, but we are now waiting for the Council. During her presentation, the Minister made no commitment to the MPs, knowing that the matter would not be resolved until the end of their mandate. “Although there are mixed views in the Council on the application and consequences of this cooperation, all delegations are in favour of cooperation at European level. We realise that this is not easy, but we will do everything in our power: we will continue the work at the technical level in order to obtain as much progress as possible”, she said.
On non-legislative topics, Ms Pintea identified the following themes: combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR), vaccination, patient access to accessible, safe and quality therapies, patient mobility, e-health and cancer control.
Calendar.
The Minister announced the following events: - 1 March: Ministerial conference “to identify next steps for the EU to become a region with good practices in terms of combating antimicrobial resistance"; - 21-22 March: Professional meeting in Bucharest on patient safety; - 14-15 April: informal meeting of Health Ministers, which will discuss in particular access to care, hepatitis C and patient mobility; - 9-10 May: workshop on EU vaccination programmes; - 11-13 June: e-Health conference in Bucharest; 14 June: Health Council. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)