Transparency and Conflict of Interests in the Case of the Medicine Agencies: Promotion and Management of a Political Issue

Over recent decades, the notion of ‘conflict of interest’ has progressively become established as a key lens through which to assess the “good administration” and the democratic level of the European governance. In this respect, the EU agencies (EMA, EFSA) were heavily criticized both by political actors, like NGOs and MEPs, and by institutional bodies, like the European Ombudsman and the European Court of auditors, for their poor management of conflicts of interest. Yet, the debate is not confined within the European field. National policies and bodies tackle the issue of conflict of interest by considering it as a piece of the transparency policies. By focusing on the case of the European Medicine Agency and the French agency, the objective of the paper is twofold. First, it will try to show how the notion of conflict of interest was developed as a problem that both the national and the EU institutions had to address and how it circulated between the EU and the French field. Secondly, by analyzing the management of the conflicts of interests by the medicine agencies, it will show how the transparency movement that encompasses all the institutions and the political actors, is used as a mean to enhance and legitimate the co-production of expertise.