Brussels, 08/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Providing information for the members of national and regional parliaments on assessment of scientific and technological options and answering the question of how to develop a pan-European Parliamentary Technology Assessment (PTA) - such are the objectives of the conference organised on Wednesday 7 September at the premises of the European Parliament by the Science and Technology Options Assessment (STOA), at an initiative by Professor Dr Wiebe Bijker from the University of Maastricht. Participants at the event included Christien Enzing, the co-author of the research work entitled Parliamentary Assessment in Europe, and representatives of various national and regional PTAs, who set out different approaches for the assessment of scientific options in Europe. The importance of scientific research during a period of crisis and the importance of the challenge consisting of democratically managing scientific and technological research was underlined throughout the conference. (T.R./transl.jl)