At a conference on the European Research Area (ERA) held in Bonn on Tuesday, 20 October, under the German EU Council Presidency, EU research ministers supported the Bonn Declaration on Freedom of Scientific Research.
A principle defined from the very beginning of this declaration as “the right to define research questions independently and freely, to select and develop theories, to compile empirical data and to apply sound academic research methods in order to challenge accepted knowledge and to develop new ideas [...]”.
Anja Karliczek, the German Minister of Education and Research, at the initiative of this declaration, insisted on the need for a renewed commitment by European governments to the freedom and protection of science and research, which cannot be “taken for granted”.
Ms Karliczek referred, in particular, to attempts to restrict the freedom of scientific research under the pretext of promoting national interests, to put pressure on the research and scientific community and to the increasing dissemination of fake news. These are all threats to the freedom of research in the EU and worldwide.
“Let’s remind ourselves that researchers and academic institutions continue to be under pressure from governments, even in some EU Member States. In other countries, academics have been dismissed on a massive scale from their universities because of their views”, said Marc Schiltz, President of Science Europe, who welcomed the adoption of the declaration.
While the text shows the willingness of the ministers to work to protect the freedom of researchers, it does not, however, contain any specific measures.
Monitoring system. It merely reaffirms major principles such as the right of researchers to express themselves, the importance of fighting censorship and discrimination on the part of governments and institutions, the responsibilities of scientific organisations and the importance of freedom of research for international cooperation in science and technology.
The declaration further proposes adopting an approach similar to international processes for monitoring press freedom, “a regular Europe-wide monitoring tool that shows and gives indications on the status of freedom of science and research in the Member States”, according to the minister.
Katrin Kinzelbach, who teaches at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, was invited to speak at this ministerial conference and who, together with international partners, had initiated an index of academic freedom.
She has also prompted European leaders to unite to protect freedom of research from infringement.
Hungarian delegation. The declaration, signed by Anja Karliczek on Tuesday afternoon, was supported by the ministers during their discussions. The minister indicated that she assumed that “the vast majority of Member States” would therefore sign this text “in the coming days and weeks”.
Asked about the position of the Hungarian delegation on the subject - in light of the recent decision of the EU Court of Justice condemning the restrictions imposed by Budapest on foreign universities in Hungary (see EUROPE 12575/14) - the minister reiterated that all delegations had indeed “expressed their support and their wish to participate in the declaration”. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)