The scoping phase is an important step in the process of developing ethics advice. Its purpose is to define exactly what advice is needed, and to make sure that it will genuinely add value to EU policymaking — for instance, by being timely and relevant to the work of the policymaker(s) or institution(s) that requested it.
Developing the scoping paper
The Commission draws up a scoping paper which specifies in more detail:
- why the request is being made
- the main issues at stake
- the exact questions being asked, in a formulation that is as unambiguous and unbiased as possible
- the EU policy context
- the kind of advice needed (for instance, a formal opinion, a statement, an explanatory note, or something else)
- the date by which the answer should be received
The scoping paper also takes into account:
- the added value that the advice is expected to give for EU policymaking
- other requests that the Ethics Advice Mechanism has received or is likely to receive
- resource availability
This scoping paper is usually developed by the Commission services responsible for the policy area in question, and other relevant parts of the Commission. This work is coordinated by the EGE secretariat in consultation with the European Group on Ethics.
SAEGE, which supports the EGE’s work, can also be involved in the scoping process, if the Commission invites it to take part. This can happen, for instance, if the topic for advice originally came from SAEGE’s horizon-scanning activities, or if particular expertise is needed from the ethics community to develop the scoping paper.
Once the scoping paper is adopted, it is published and used to guide all the subsequent stages of of our process, to ensure that the advice and recommendations we give are focused on addressing the questions we were originally asked.