Pressure mounts for EU law to protect academic freedom

The European Parliament’s industry, research and energy committee wants to kickstart the process of creating a European regulation to protect academic freedom, writes Goda Naujokaityte for Science|Business.

“Our aim is to propose a text for European regulation on the freedom of scientific research,” said MEP Christian Ehler. “Such a regulation would allow European courts to develop a legal standard for the freedom of scientific research.” Ehler was speaking at the first Academic Freedom Roundtable last week, held under the auspices of the European Parliament’s STOA Panel for the Future of Science and Technology, a forum for discussing academic freedom and consulting the research community on proposed future regulation.

As things stand, there are no official protections for academic freedom at EU level, and with violations on the rise, Ehler says the EU should do more. But the European Commission has not been keen on pursuing legal protection, and the issue does not feature on the current European Research Area policy agenda.
Full report on the Science|Business site