European science advice is “deficient” - March 12, 2009
Europe needs better and more “brutal” scientific advice, the UK government's chief scientist, John Beddington, told BBC news.
Beddington says that Europe should follow the lead of Barack Obama, the US president, who has appointed a "dream team" of scientists to senior positions in his administration to advise him on policy.
"Compared with the new Washington line-up, European science advice looks very deficient," he says.
In particular, EU environmental regulations are often well meant but can be misguided if they are not independently assessed, he says.
Beddington gave examples of EU plans to phase out pesticides that pose little risk to human health, and efforts to forge ahead with growing biofuel crops, which have been linked to increased food prices.
The key directorates of the European Commission, which is responsible for developing policy, do not have scientific advisors and there is no chief scientist giving advice directly to the EU Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, Beddington says.
In contrast, the UK government has independent scientific advisors in nearly all its departments.
This is not the first time the EU’s lack of science advice has been criticised. David King, the UK government’s former chief science advisor, last year also bemoaned the lack of a “pro-active system of scientific advice” within the EU Commission.
