News and Comment
Anne Glover named as EU chief scientific adviser (CSA)
22 November 2011
Sense About Science had pressed the European Commission to create a chief scientist role to improve scientific scrutiny of European policy making and legislation. We were pleased with President Barroso's promise in 2009 to create the position, but the two year delay has been disappointing. So it is good news today that Anne Glover (currently Scotland's Chief Scientific Adviser) has been named as the first person to take up the post.
There is an urgent need for sound scientific evidence to inform European policy making, the absence of which has produced poorly evidenced and unworkable legislation in the past, not least the Physical Agents Directive which we successfully campaigned to expose in 2007 and which others have continued to get onto a scientific footing.
The creation of the post is in itself no guarantee that there will be better scientific scrutiny at a European level; the responsibilities of the role are yet to be announced. But such a position does present the opportunity for scientific scrutiny to become the central task. The scientific community and national policymakers should press for this, which is why we have organised an expert panel discussion at ESOF 2012 on "Scientific advice for European policy", a Question Time session where the panel will be asked to set out the role of scientific advice for Europe and debate its challenges .
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