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Policy assessments to enhance EU scientific advice

Nature Climate Change volume 6, pages 15–17 (2016)Cite this article

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The European Commission needs to amend its new Scientific Advice Mechanism. Highly integrated, participatory assessments of policy alternatives are required for multidimensional, value-laden policy issues such as the European Union's climate and energy policies.

After the much-disputed axing of Anne Glover's post of Chief Scientific Adviser1,2, the European Commission is putting together the nuts and bolts of its new, more elaborate Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM)3. By the end of October this year, a trio of scouts (Sir David King, Rianne Letschert and António Vitorino), known as the 'Identification Committee', is tasked with recommending seven eminent scholars as members of a High Level Group to advise the Commission3. The operational support unit assisting the Group will be well funded compared with Glover's former team. The new SAM wants the Group to cooperate with institutions such as the European scientific academies and the European Union's Joint Research Centre in a structured relationship. This new SAM is a compromise between different science-policy approaches in the EU member states4.

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Figure 1: Key characteristics of integrated policy assessments.

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Acknowledgements

This work benefited from B. Knopf's comments and from an expert workshop on the new EU SAM organized by Stiftung Mercator (Berlin, June 2015).

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  1. Martin Kowarsch is at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), Torgauer Strasse 12–15, 10829 Berlin, Germany,

    Martin Kowarsch

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Correspondence to Martin Kowarsch.

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Kowarsch, M. Policy assessments to enhance EU scientific advice. Nature Clim Change 6, 15–17 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2835

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