The EU Health Technology Assessment and the Open Method of Coordination: A Relation with Potential in the Context of Network Governance

Ani Matei,Corina-Georgiana Antonovici,Adrian-Stelian Dumitru

doi:10.3390/su13063582

Ani Matei, Corina-Georgiana Antonovici + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063582

Copy DOI

Abstract

The open method of coordination (OMC)—a tool which was formalized in the early 2000s—has generated the interest of both the researchers and practitioners in the context of the new EU governance. This article is examining the literature of both network governance and OMC, with the focus particularly on one main question: is OMC a useful instrument in health policies in order to achieve concrete results by outlining norms and legislation where EU exercise limited power? Analyzing a field in which the EU competence is limited—given the budgetary implications of medicines reimbursement—from the results of the existing collaboration within EUnetHTA, we will observe the added value in this particular case of the OMC application, and the possible consequences in shaping the supranational competences. Given that the EU, with some exceptions provided by the Treaties, may only exercise actions to support, coordinate or complement the action of the Member States in the health policy, the OMC proves to be a useful tool, both from the perspective of the Member States but especially of the supranational level.

Highlights

The feedback pulse of the European Union against the economic crisis of 2008 which laid out the weaknesses of the EU economic governance from that moment emerged in a debate in order to find out a viable solution from the intergovernmental and supranational actions through balancing the scales
This article aims to examine the use of OMC in a policy area that has been carefully kept as a national competence by the Member States that is health care
We introduce a concise overview of the EU network governance meaning, and later focus on OMC sense and evolution over years as well as its introduction into the EU health policy field

Summary

Introduction

The feedback pulse of the European Union against the economic crisis of 2008 which laid out the weaknesses of the EU economic governance from that moment emerged in a debate in order to find out a viable solution from the intergovernmental and supranational actions through balancing the scales. That debate brought into discussion the need that intergovernmental ‘soft’ methods such as the open method of coordination (OMC) to be extended and used in a broader sense. This article aims to examine the use of OMC in a policy area that has been carefully kept as a national competence by the Member States that is health care. ‘’health policy in the EU has a fundamental contradiction at its core” [1]. The reason for this statement is that on the one hand, the Treaties, as the primary EU law, expound explicitly that health care resides in the Member State competence. Given that health systems involve interactions with patients, goods and services, all of which are granted freedom of movement across borders by the same Treaties, various national health tasks are subject to EU law and policy

Objectives

Methods

Results