19 August 2014
CIEL and 27 organizations sent a letter to the new head of the EU Commission today reiterating a call for healthy debate on how scientific policy advice is structured in the EU. In particular, the letter asks the new president of the Commission to put an end to the position of Chief Scientific Adviser to the Commission as currently structured. Civil society has serious concerns that the position concentrates too much influence on one person, and that it operates in total secrecy. The current position holder has stated that her advice should remain “not transparent” and immune from public scrutiny. The position goes against the principle of ensuring that scientific advice upon which policy decisions are based is independent, balanced, and transparent.
“At a time when scientific opinion is central to EU policy making and legislative processes, the idea of a single person secretly advising the Commission on all science related matters, from climate change, to toxic chemicals, GMOs, fracking and fisheries, is not only unscientific, it is also in direct contradiction to the democratic process enshrined by the European Union,” says David Azoulay, Senior Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). “It is critical that EU lawmakers have access to the best representation of wide-ranging and transparent scientific advice to carry out their work; asking one single person to secretly determine what science ‘is’ on a subject is a grave mistake.”