Open letter to the President-elect of the European Commission, Mr Jean-Claude Juncker

An open letter from various health and environment organisations to President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker arguing against the re-appointment of a Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) to the European Commission, citing concerns over transparency, corporate influence, and the concentration of power.

• The authors argue that the role of Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) is fundamentally flawed because it concentrates too much influence in a single individual, which can undermine the detailed scientific research and assessments conducted by Commission directorates during policy development.
• The document claims that concentrating scientific advice in one person makes it easier for vested interests to control and for politicians to find an authoritative voice to support specific policies. It notes that in the UK, several CSAs were criticized for providing partial advice aligned with commercial and political interests.
• There is a specific concern regarding the lack of transparency in the CSA role, noting that the European Commission's CSA has no obligation to publish the advice given to the President and has stated that her advice should remain "not transparent" and immune from public scrutiny.
• The letter observes that the CSA model as a full-time government office is rare within the EU; only the UK, Ireland, and the Czech Republic had established such posts, and two of those three have recently abandoned the model.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2014). Open letter to the President-elect of the European Commission, Mr Jean-Claude Juncker. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/EC_SciAdvisor_19Aug2014.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Open letter to the President-elect of the European Commission, Mr Jean-Claude Juncker. 2014. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/EC_SciAdvisor_19Aug2014.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Open letter to the President-elect of the European Commission, Mr Jean-Claude Juncker |date=19 August 2014 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/EC_SciAdvisor_19Aug2014.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2014open, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Open letter to the President-elect of the European Commission, Mr Jean-Claude Juncker}}, publisher = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2014}, month = aug, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/EC_SciAdvisor_19Aug2014.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }