Risk communication: the European Commission TSE Roadmap Model for policy relaxation

Kerstin Dressel (1) , Wim van Wassenhove (2) , Alice Perazzini (3) , Giuseppe Ru (3)

1 South German Institute of Empirical Social Research
2 CRC - Centre de recherche sur les Risques et les Crises
3 CEA - Reference Centre for Animal Encephalopathies

The Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) crisis forced the European Commission to impose strict regulations, the most significant and overarching of which was Regulation (EC) No 999/2001. These regulations were responsible for the abatement of the BSE epidemic in Europe in the years that followed. The Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) Roadmap was published by the European Commission several years later, on 15 July 2005. This roadmap proposed the relaxation of BSE measures in the short, medium and long term. It was seen as a proactive way to prepare for the implementation of new regulations and, in terms of risk communication, was a very interesting approach. This paper presents the 'roadmap model' as an effective tool for risk communication. It proposes several recommendations to help decision-makers in the difficult task of risk communication and establishes some conditions for generating public trust.

Mots clés: risk communication; risk perception; risk management; policy relaxation; BSE crisis; TSE Roadmap; trust

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Gestion des risques et des crises

Kerstin Dressel, Wim van Wassenhove, Alice Perazzini, Giuseppe Ru. Risk communication: the European Commission TSE Roadmap Model for policy relaxation. International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, 2012, 16 (4), p. 213-226. ⟨hal-00757092⟩