29/11/2011 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Strasbourg, 29.11.2011 - In a draft resolution adopted at a meeting in Paris today, the PACE Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs underlines the urgent need for independent and credible expert assessments in fields such as the environment, health, energy, finance or civil protection. “Findings vary in accordance with the source of funding,” the PACE rapporteur on this subject, Cezar Florin Preda (Romania, EPP/CD) stressed.
The Committee said it regretted that economic interests and the lack of full, transparent information has led to many healthcare scandals (contaminated blood, growth hormones, asbestos). It considered that a legal framework could help reinforce the credibility of expert assessments and thereby prevent external pressure. Independence and impartiality of expert assessments form a condition sine qua on for their reliability and legitimacy, the Committee stressed.
In a draft resolution adopted unanimously today, the Committee calls for:
• specimen rules to define the context in which an assessment must be placed - who requested and who finances the assessment
• assessments to be made in a collegial framework, including groups of scientists with presumably divergent opinions as well as civil society players
• the traceability of assessments
• a public fund to finance so-called “sensitive” expert assessments
• the preparation of a handbook of good practice
Mr Preda’s report will be debated at the Standing committee meeting in March 2012.