Brussels, 30/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - On 30 May, the Commission adopted new rules on how it selects the members of the consultative expert groups which feed into the policy-making process, the institution announced in a press release.
“The decision in question establishes a single raft of rules and principles aiming to increase transparency, avoid conflicts of interest and guarantee a balanced representation of interests. The new rules will be obligatory for all of the Commission's services”, it says.
Under the new rules, the Commission's services will now be required to select all members of expert groups, with the exception of those representing the member states, third countries and international bodies or the EU, via public calls for applications. These calls must be published in the register of expert groups and must clearly state the selection criteria, including the required expertise and target interest groups.
“All possible efforts will be made to guarantee a balanced representation, taking account of the areas of expertise and of interest, sex and geographical origin, as well as the mandate of the expert group in question”. The revised rules further reinforce the transparency of the work of the various groups, by explicitly requiring the Commission's services to make the relevant documents, such as agendas, full and meaningful minutes and the experts' comments, available. In the event that an expert group adopts its position through a vote, the minority opinions expressed by the experts may also be published, if they so request.
On the issue of conflicts of interest for individuals appointed personally, the Commission's services will have to “carry out specific assessments of conflicts of interest for these experts, on the basis of a standard declaration of interests which they must present. These declarations are then published in the expert groups register for the purposes of public accountability”. Experts applying to represent specific interests or organisations will only be chosen as members of an expert group if they are included on the transparency register. This condition will apply retroactively to all current members of expert groups by the end of this year. There are currently around 800 expert groups providing the Commission with advice in all of its fields of action. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)