The balance between science and policy in the public decision-making process: the EFSA case (European Food Safety Authority)

The paper highlights the role assumed by some fundamental principles of European law, specifically those of precaution and transparency, in redefining the perimeter of technology and politics in the public decisionmaking process. The context is that of the disappearance of the logic of full scientific rationality at the basis of some public choices in a sector, such as that of food safety, in which the existence of a possible risk on their extent, leads to political determinations driven more by prudence than solely from scientific evidence. The deterioration of certainty, in the scientific analysis of certain risk factors and in their scope, actually entails the re-expansion of some principles of European law, such as those of precaution and transparency, and the reduction of the explanatory value of others, such as those of independence and scientific authority of the subjects in charge of the evaluation.