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Parent Category: EPTA News Archive
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The Catalan Parliament brings together the chief scientific consultants to the European parliaments for a working meeting in Sitges.

Monday, 14 May 2012. Sitges (El Garraf)

The directors of the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment (EPTA) offices are meeting today and tomorrow in Sitges for a working conference organised by the Catalan Parliament which this year holds the presidency of this network. The conference is being chaired by Dolors Batalla, fourth secretary of the Catalan Parliament’s Presiding Committee.

In her opening address, Batalla said the conference should serve “to learn and develop science and technology assessment tools” to strengthen “cooperation between EPTA members” and prepare the conference this organisation is due to hold in October in Barcelona.

The mayor of Sitges, Miquel Forns, expressed his thanks that the meeting was being held in the town and hoped that it would produce “results useful to the Catalan Parliament and the other parliaments that have science assessment offices”.

During the conference the directors and managers of the parliamentary science and technology offices belonging to EPTA will discuss cooperation between the network’s members, plans for restructuring some of these organisations, their presence in the internet and social networks, and the next presidency of EPTA, as Catalonia’s presidency finishes at the end of this year.

CAPCIT

The Catalan Parliament is the only one in Spain that has a body of this kind – the Advisory Board of the Parliament of Catalonia for Science and Technology (CAPCIT). Moreover, the parliaments of Catalonia and Flanders are the only two EPTA members that are not State parliaments.

CAPCIT, which was set up in 2008 and is currently chaired by Núria de Gispert, has a mixed membership. It comprises the secretaries of the Catalan Parliament’s Presiding Committee, Montserrat Tura and Dolors Batalla, a deputy (MP) from each parliamentary group and representatives of the country’s leading scientific institutions, including the state universities, the Institute of Catalan Studies, the Catalan Research Support Institution Foundation and the Catalan Scientific Communication Council.

EPTA is formed by the science and technology assessment offices of the European Parliament and the parliaments of Denmark, Finland, Flanders, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Catalonia. In addition, the Council of Europe and the offices of the parliaments of Austria, Poland and the United States are associate members.