The Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices ( or OPECST) is responsible for informing the
French Parliament
The French Parliament (, ) is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of the French Fifth Republic, consisting of the Senate (France), Senate (), and the National Assembly (France), National Assembly (). Each assembly conducts legislative sessi ...
of the consequences of scientific and technological choices in order to inform its decisions. It collects information, implements study programs and carries out evaluations. It plays the role of interlocutor recognized by the entire scientific community. It has thus established a partnership with the
French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...
and has a regular contact with other academies and major research organizations. Being the only parliamentary office, it is also called more briefly “Parliamentary Office” or “Office”.
Statutes
OPECST is created by law no 83-609 of July 8, 1983, which provides that the Office must “inform Parliament of the consequences of choices of a scientific and technological nature, in order, in particular, to inform its decisions." This is the only common member in the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
and the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
.
The OPECST is made up of eighteen deputies and eighteen senators, appointed in such a way as to ensure proportional representation of the political groups. These deputies and senators are appointed by their political group and not co-opted by the members of the Office.
The Office is chaired, alternatively, by a member of one or the other assembly for a period of three years, the first vice-president belonging to the other assembly.
It has a scientific council of 24 "high-level personalities", chosen for their skills in scientific and technological questions.
Themes addressed
The problems addressed by the OPECST are divided into five main themes:
* The power and energy policy
* The environment and natural risks
* The new technology
* The life sciences (
bioethics
Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, me ...
, health, etc.) and biotechnology (
GMOs
A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with ...
,
synthetic biology
Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a multidisciplinary field of science that focuses on living systems and organisms. It applies engineering principles to develop new biological parts, devices, and systems or to redesign existing systems found in nat ...
, etc.).
* Research and innovation policy and the science & society interface.
Certain files have been renewed for several years in a row, for example those related to nuclear energy and waste management through the regular evaluation of the National Plan for the Management of Radioactive Materials and Waste (PNGMDR).
In recent years, the Office has also been dealing with topical issues through a public hearing open to the press, which allows all the stakeholders concerned to be brought together quickly.
Mission on "nuclear security, instead of the industry and its future"
In March 2011, OPECST, then chaired by deputy Claude Birraux, was jointly seized by the Office of the National Assembly and by the committee of economy, sustainable development and spatial planning of the Senate, following the events of Fukushima, of a study on "nuclear security, the place of the nuclear industry and its future".
During its meeting of March 30, 2011, the Office appointed two reporters responsible for this study:
*
Christian Bataille
Christian Bataille (born 31 May 1946 in Rieux-en-Cambrésis) is a French politician of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party (PS) who served as a member of the National Assembly of France, representing the Nord (French department), Nord ...
(
SOC
SOC, SoC, Soc, may refer to:
Science and technology
* Information security operations center, in an organization, a centralized unit that deals with computer security issues
* Selectable output control
* Separation of concerns, a program design pr ...
.,
Nord
Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to:
Acronyms
* National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization
* New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US
Film and televisi ...
UMP
UMP may refer to:
Science
* Ultra metal-poor star, refers to a type of star with extremely low levels of heavier elements
* Uniformly most powerful test, in statistical hypothesis testing
* Uridine monophosphate, a nucleotide
* Utility maximizat ...
,
Haute-Marne
Haute-Marne (; English: Upper Marne) is a department in the Grand Est region of Northeastern France. Named after the river Marne, its prefecture is Chaumont. In 2019, it had a population of 172,512.Paluel plant and at the Blayais plant, were also carried out.
The proposed long-term strategy would allow an optimal adjustment of each sector, and a gradual reduction, in parallel with the maturation of storage technologies which will make it possible to manage the intermittence of renewable energies without increasing CO2 emissions, the share of nuclear power in French electricity production.
The share of nuclear production would thus drop from around 75% today to “50 or 60% around 2050”, by not replacing one in two end-of-life reactors, in favor of EPR reactors. The decision to shut down a reactor would be left to ASN, whose necessary independence is underlined.
Controversy
The independence of the OPECST on nuclear-related issues has long been questioned by environmentalists, including
Michèle Rivasi
Michèle Rivasi (9 February 1953 – 29 November 2023) was a French politician who served as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 until her death in 2023, for Europe Écologie–The Greens. She was previously a member of the Frenc ...
Drôme
Drôme (; Occitan: ''Droma''; Arpitan: ''Drôma'') is the southernmost department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. Named after the river Drôme, it had a population of 516,762 as of 2019.
from 1998 to 2002 and founder of CRIIRAD, who claimed to have had a "lot of difficulties to be admitted to sit on the Office" and declared in particular: "One cannot imagine to what extent the nuclear lobby permeates the work of the Office."
However, a national radioactive waste management plan to improve the readability and overall effectiveness of the initiatives of the public authorities and the various operators, central proposal of Michèle Rivasi's report relating to the consequences of storage of nuclear waste on health, had been implemented. In fact, following its report, a 2006 law known as the “Birraux law” created a legal framework for the establishment of a National Radioactive Materials and Waste Management Plan (PNGMDR). The first PNGMDR was released in 2007, and the second in 2010.
In 2021, physicist and engineer Sébastien Point denounced the recommendations formulated by the OPECST, then chaired by the mathematician and deputy
Cédric Villani
Cédric Patrice Thierry Villani (; born 5 October 1973) is a French politician and mathematician working primarily on partial differential equations, Riemannian geometry and mathematical physics. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 2010, and he ...
geobiology
Geobiology is a field of scientific research that explores the interactions between the physical Earth and the biosphere. It is a relatively young field, and its borders are fluid. There is considerable overlap with the fields of ecology, evoluti ...
) to address certain health issues in the agricultural world, despite its nature. The physicist qualified geobiology as a "
charlatan
A charlatan (also called a swindler or mountebank) is a person practicing quackery or a similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages through pretense or deception. One example of a charlatan appears in t ...
network" and "a profitable business which seems to find political relays".