CHAPTER 4PRINCIPLES

Article 16Transparency

1.

The activities of the Scientific Committees shall be carried out with a high level of transparency. The Commission 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, Inter-Committee Coordination Group and working groups;

(c)

the scientific opinions, and rapid advice 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 or advisors concerned;

(d)

the common rules of procedures of the Scientific Committees;

(e)

the names of the members of the Scientific Committees as well as of the scientific advisors from the Pool, together with a brief curriculum vitae of each member and advisor;

(f)

the declarations of interests of the members of the Scientific Committees, of the scientific advisors from the Pool and of the external experts that participated in a working group.

2.

The transparency rules referred to in paragraph 1 shall be applied in accordance with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data6 (EC), and of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents7, especially with regard to commercial confidentiality.