Independence
(1) The members of the Scientific Committees and external experts shall be nominated in a personal capacity. They shall not delegate their responsibilities to any other person.
(2) The members of the Scientific Committees and external experts shall act independently and in the public interest. For this purpose they shall make a declaration of interests indicating any interest which may compromise or may reasonably be perceived to compromise their independence, including any relevant circumstances relating to their close family members.
(3) Declarations of interests shall be made in writing, prior to the appointment as a member of the Scientific Committee or as an external expert, and annually. These declarations shall be updated whenever a change of circumstances so requires.
(4) The members of the Scientific Committees and external experts shall declare at each meeting any specific interest which may compromise or may reasonably be perceived to compromise their independence in relation to the items on the agenda. The same obligation shall apply, mutatis mutandis , when a written procedure is launched in any of the Scientific Committees.
Confidentiality
(1) The members of the Scientific Committees and external experts shall not divulge information acquired as a result of the work of the Scientific Committees, or working groups or as a result of other activities related to the application of this Decision. For this purpose, they shall sign a declaration of confidentiality.
(2) The members of the Scientific Committees and external experts shall comply with Commission's security rules for protecting European Union Classified Information (EUCI) and sensitive non-classified information, as set out in Commission Decisions (EU, Euratom) 2015/443 ( 3 ) and 2015/444 ( 4 ) . If these obligations are not met, the Commission services may take all appropriate measures.
Commitment
The members of the Scientific Committees and external experts shall commit themselves to act independently, in the public interest and to contribute actively to the work of the Scientific Committees. For this purpose, they shall sign a declaration of commitment.
Transparency
(1) The activities of the Scientific Committees shall be carried out with a high level of transparency. The Commission services shall publish all relevant documents, such as agendas, minutes and participants' submissions, on a dedicated website; a link from the Register of expert groups to this website will also be provided. The Commission services shall in particular make available to the public on its website, without undue delay:
(a)
the request for opinions addressed to the Scientific Committees;
(b)
agendas and minutes of the meetings of the Scientific Committees and minutes of the working groups;
(c)
the scientific opinions adopted by the Scientific Committees, including the minority opinions and the names of the participants in the working groups that contributed to the opinion concerned; minority opinions shall be attributed to the members concerned;
(d)
the rules of procedures of the Scientific Committees;
(e)
the names of the members of the Scientific Committees, together with a brief curriculum vitae of each member;
(f)
the declarations of interests, of confidentiality and of commitment of the members of the Scientific Committees and external experts.
(2) The names and declarations of interest of working group members shall be made publicly available on the Commission's website after the publication of the opinion to which they have contributed.
Exceptions to publication shall be possible where disclosure of a document would undermine the protection of a public or private interest as defined in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
(3) Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be applied in accordance with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 5 ) , especially with regard to processing of personal data and commercial confidentiality.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
