EU POLICY

If public opinion shapes EU policy, then a certain amount of uncertainty surrounds the future of agri-food biotechnology. The lack of equilibrium between the EU and the US adds to the global uncertainty over the issue since both are powerful political and trade powers and have yet to find common ground. This section will interpret the consequences of this uncertainty as the national and industrial responses to changes in their economic interests. 

The general EU policy objectives considered most relevant to the design of energy policy are (Jansen, 2003) ... 

In terms of informed policy decision, it would be desirable to relate information to both the input and to the output. However, working with secondary data implies that many studies do not provide complete information. In most cases, though, data on an environmental indicator is only available on the input, the per unit of land area basis. Although in scientific terms it is deplorable that most information is not available on a per unit of output basis, this is less problematic for today s practical EU policy. Food surpluses are more of a problem in the current political environment than food scarcity and there seems to be a broad consensus to keep the amount of farmland relatively stable. Therefore, in the EU, in most cases, the policy relevant way is to apply the data on environmental indicators to the input on a the per unit of land area term. 

Although it is scientifically deplorable that more information is not available on a per unit of output basis, it is less problematic for practical EU policy in today s political environment. In a policy environment in which broad consensus seems to be that the area of land used for agriculture should not drastically change and in which food surpluses are still more of an issue than the fear of food scarcity, the best way to express environmental indicators is in terms of per unit of land. Therefore, the food security proponent s question is currently politically irrelevant. 

The European Commission is one of the EU s key institutions and represents and upholds the interests of Europe as a whole (EU 2006b). The Commission acts with complete political independence. It has 25 members, the so-called commissioners - one from each EU country, and each commissioner has responsibility for a particular EU policy area. The Commission must ensure that the legislations adopted by the Council and Parliament are being put into effect. The Commission is also the only institution that has the right to propose new EU legislation. The Commission is assisted by a civil service made up of 36 Directorates-General (DGs) and services. 

The EU policy on chemical substances aims to provide an appropriate balance between protection of human health and environment from undesirable exposure to chemicals and the need for continued chemical innovation so that the citizens of the EU can reahze the potential benefits (EU 2006c). 

The standardized testing methods play a central role in the EU policy on chemicals control and they are referred to in many other pieces of EU legislation (e.g., those related to dangerous preparations, pesticides, cosmetics, and biocides also refer to these methods). The methods are based on those recognized and recommended by competent international bodies, in particular OECD (Section 2.2). When such methods were not available, national standards or scientific consensus methods have been adopted. 

IMEP has supplementary features to a regular PT scheme it is rather a whole metrological process that underlines the need of reliability and comparability of measurements. The IRMM is independent of any private or national interest giving scicntiPc support to all EU Member States. For that reason IMEP ILCs are not organized repeatedly on the same matrices or analytes, but they aim to depict the present measurement capability status in various f>elds where EU policies are relevant, for example, in the food sector. 

Dr. Nadia Haiama EU Policy Director, Chemicals Greenpeace European Unit Discussion... 

The willingness to open up for dialogue and, thus, for the politicisation of policy advice follows from the Commission s broader approach to engage civil society and stakeholders (Madelin 2004). This might be a response to the distrust of EU policies and institutions witnessed in polls and in the series of negative outcomes in national referenda that have blocked major reforms. 

---