EUnetHTA's contribution to the new legal framework for health technology assessment cooperation in Europe

The history of the European cooperation on health technology assessment (HTA) has reached an important milestone with the adoption of the European HTA Regulation (HTA R) 2021/2282 in Dec 2021 (1). Its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union means a lot to those of us who wish to give HTA a stronger role in supporting health policy in favor of sustainable healthcare systems in Europe. The HTA R was prepared well by the European Commission with an impact assessment on policy options for enhanced EU cooperation on HTA (2) in 2017, followed by 3 years of negotiations with Member States. Now the ratified document stipulates that the European Cooperation on HTA will be based on a legal mandate and no longer stay a voluntary project-based initiative. It also means sustainability, since a permanent Secretariat at the European Commission will be set-up under the HTA R.