Europeiska ekonomiska och sociala kommittén
On 22 February 2021, the European Commission (EC) presented an Action Plan on Synergies between civil, defence and space industries (COM(2021) 70 final) to further enhance Europe's technological edge and support its industrial base.
In the Horizon Europe Regulation, the co-legislators have identified eight priority areas for possible institutionalised European partnerships on the basis of Articles 185 or 187 TFEU. Based on this, a set of twelve initiatives were identified as candidates that were subject to a coordinated impact assessment.
The Commission proposal covers nine institutionalised European partnerships based on Article 187 TFEU establishing individual joint undertakings for their implementation.
This is a follow-up to the 2018 EESC opinion on Health Technology Assessment (INT/844). On 24 March 2021, the Council has adopted its negotiating mandate. Since the new compromise text introduces a change of legal basis and substantial changes to the original proposal of the Commission, the Council decided to request a new opinion from the EESC.
Among other things, the Council compromise text proposes a progressive implementation of the product scope, starting with cancer drugs, orphan drugs and ATMP (Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products). In addition, when carrying out a national health technology assessment on a health technology for which reports have been published or in respect of which a joint clinical assessment has been initiated, Member States shall not request at the national level information, data, analyses and other evidence that has been submitted by the health technology developer at EU level.