At the meeting of the network of European parliamentary TA institutions (EPTA) in Copenhagen the EPTA presidency for 2011 was conferred on TAB (ITAS) [29.11.2010]

EPTA is the European network of parliamentary technology assessment institutions. The annual meeting of these European parliamentary institutions for technology assessment (European Parliamentary Technology Assessment, EPTA) was held at the beginning of November. Since Denmark holds the EPTA presidency this year, the Danish parliament hosted the conference in Copenhagen together with the Teknologirådet (Danish Board of Technology).

The EPTA Council decided unanimously that Germany should assume the EPTA presidency for 2011. So the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Parliament (TAB) will take over the EPTA presidency in 2011. Presidency rotates among the full members of EPTA every year. The last time TAB was entrusted with the presidency was in 2000. One of the main tasks of the member organization holding the EPTA presidency is the organization of the international EPTA fall conference. Founded in 1990, the aim of the network is to promote the exchange of experiences and the international co-operation of institutions which provide technology assessment as a scientific consultancy for political opinion-making and decision processes to European parliaments.

The EPTA Council also decided at the meeting to admit the US Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) as an associated EPTA member. The presentation of and discussions on the EU project PACITA (Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment), which will be run by a consortium of EPTA members, took up a large part of the council meeting. Its aim is the advancement of parliamentary TA in Europe.

This year's EPTA conference was titled “Routes to Sustainable Transport” and was aimed at giving an overview on the current status of discussion and the implementation of the concept of “Sustainable Transport” in EPTA countries. The focus was on the exchange of experiences and ideas of parliamentarians and European transport experts.

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