Brussels, 14/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission announced last week that it has set up a public register of the expert groups that help it in preparing legislative proposals and policy initiatives (see EUROPE 9066 on the Commission's new move towards greater transparency). The Commission maintains a high level of in-house expertise, but it is also able to draw on external specialists to help in often very diverse and technical areas from the setting of targets for air quality, to authorising cosmetic products, establishing automobile safety standards, determining sustainable fish catches, developing strategies to tackle unemployment or public health concerns, or designing European research programmes. The new register provides an overview of the groups which help the Commission and follows up the Commission's 2002 Guidelines on the collection and use of expertise. It provides basic information on the groups' tasks, the lead service in the Commission and the general composition of the group. It covers a total of around 1.300 expert groups. The exact number varies over time as different groups are created and others are wound up after completing their work. The register classifies the participants in broad categories (scientists, academics, practitioners, industry, NGOs, etc) but it does not contain any information on individual experts, mainly for data protection and privacy reasons. Nonetheless, in some cases, and providing that formal data protection requirements have been respected, links to information about the identity of members of specific groups will be included in the register. The new register provides information on expert groups, created by the Commission to help it in its day to day work. However, it does not cover the 250 so called “comitology committees” which are established by under EU rules to assist the Commission in using its executive powers to implement legislation, nor the joint bodies resulting from international agreements to supervise their implementation. “We are committed to shining a light on the way decisions in Brussels are taken”, said European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, explaining in a press release that: “The Commission is fortunate to be able to draw on a wide range of advice and expertise. It is only normal that the public should have more information about who is helping to shape EU policies. This new register ensures a more open administration and contributes to the overall objective of Better Regulation.” The register of expert groups is located at the following address: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/regexp/ )