In October 1985, the EP adopted a report "on
the establishment of a European Parliament Office for Scientific and
Technological Option Assessment", which stressed "the particular needs of the
standing committees and political groups in technical and political
decision-making, which can be met only by an autonomous technology assessment
office" and proposed "that a European Parliament office for scientific and
technological option assessment should be set up ... to coordinate assessment
work and award external contracts in support of its work".
Following
a decision by the EP Bureau in June
1986, STOA was officially launched in March 1987 as an 18-month pilot
project,
at the end of which, in September 1988, the EP Bureau authorised STOA
to
continue its work on a permanent basis, on condition that it make its
services
available to all standing parliamentary committees. As such, STOA
celebrated
its 20 years of existence in 2007 with a major exhibition ("The STOA
Experience")
during the EP plenary session in Strasbourg in June of that year. In
2012 STOA marked its 25th anniversary with a very successful event on
the discovery of the scalar boson predicted by R. Brout, F. Englert and
P.Higgs, followed by a festive reception attended by all past STOA
Chairmen.
STOA’s
activities were initially governed by a
series of Bureau Decisions, which were assembled in the Consolidated
Internal
Rules of Procedure of STOA and approved by the EP Bureau on 25 October
1999. On
13 January 2003, the EP Bureau adopted STOA Rules defining the nature
of STOA,
describing STOA bodies and setting the framework conditions for STOA
projects.
These rules were in force until the end of the 1999–2004
legislative period, whereupon the new STOA Rules, approved by the EP
Bureau on 19 April 2004, entered into force.
In
2009, the STOA Rules were further modified,
based on proposals submitted by the EP Vice-President responsible for
STOA.
The main purpose of these modifications was to add a European dimension
to STOA’s
mission and include an additional criterion for selecting STOA projects
in
alignment with the priorities defined by the STOA Panel, as well as to
stipulate a second Vice-Chairman and simplify certain procedures. In
2015 the Rules were modified once again to account for the increase in
STOA membership: from 15 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs)
representing six EP Committees, to 24 Members from eight Committees.
Chapter Institutionalisation - all countries
© EPTA, version 20 Jan 2017; provided by ITA |