Month: January 2020

Lobbying in practice – The Regulatory Scrutiny Board

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Part 1 of a series of posts reflecting the old working methods and working with the Commission. Regulatory Scrutiny Board The Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB) is an independent body within the Commission which scrutinises the quality of impact assessments, evaluations and fitness checks. The membership is 6 people plus the chair. They serve for a … Read more

lobbying inter-service consultation – some thoughts

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From time to time I am asked how the Commission adopts proposals.   Whilst one or two Commission departments seem to selectively ignore Inter-Service Consultation, I thought it would be useful to share some practical thoughts.   These ideas work well for most files, except for a limited number of files where Commission Departments don’t … Read more

Scientific advice v Fishing Ministers – December 2019

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This morning I learned the Fisheries Committee received the list of the scientific advice back in December 2019. From this, you can start to work out how often fisheries ministers and the Commission followed the advice of scientists.   Source EP link and Council text Name Area ICES Advice Catches corresp. to advice (tonnes) Commission … Read more

Occam’s razor and fisheries

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A remark by the Fisheries Commissioner reminded me of Occam’s razor. Occam’s razor reasons that the simplest solution is likely the most likely the right one. Occam’s razor says “that when presented with competing for hypotheses that make the same predictions, one should select the solution with the fewest assumptions,[3and it is not meant to be a … Read more