Brussels, 24/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - Widely criticised for its lack of independence, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has delivered the product of its reform process with the publication on 24 January of its new policy on independence and scientific decision-making processes, at the same time as its science strategy for 2012-2016. This was a fitting way to mark the Authority's upcoming 10th anniversary, though some are already casting doubt on whether these will help it regain its prestige.
Be that as it may, EFSA's management board, meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday, has just adopted these two documents which are crucial to EFSA's restoring its credibility with member states and with the public as the authority responsible for issuing scientific advice on risk assessments for foodstuffs, feed and plant food, so that the authorities that have responsibility for risk management - the European Commission and the member states - can make political decisions and take the steps necessary to ensure food safety in the EU.
For the next five years, EFSA will focus on four key strategic objectives: - further developing the excellence of its scientific advice, and other core values, such as openness, transparency, independence and responsibility; - optimising the use of risk assessment capacity in the EU; - developing and harmonising methodologies and approaches to assess risks associated with the food chain; - and strengthening the scientific basis for risk assessment and risk monitoring. These are the main objectives identified in the public consultation organised by EFSA among all stakeholders (its own staff, the European institutions, national food safety authorities and EFSA's Advisory Forum).
Guided by this strategy, EFSA believes it will be able to retain its central support role to the food safety regulatory system in the EU and its task of protecting consumers through risk assessments based on the most up-to-date scientific information and, thus, help improve public, animal and plant health. EFSA will also continue to extend its range beyond food safety to provide expertise in areas such as health benefits and environmental risk assessment. Furthermore, it will also support further development of a harmonised and consistent approach to the human health-risk assessment of chemical mixtures in food and feed.
The transparency policy adopted by EFSA to enhance the objectivity of its scientific opinions builds in the results of the workshop organised in October of last year (see EUROPE 10516 and 10512) and identifies areas for improvement. In 2012, therefore, EFSA will begin the task of simplifying and clarifying its rules in order to identify and handle conflicts of interest. It will increase information on how decisions on conflicts of interest are reached by outlining admissible and incompatible interests in a transparent manner. And it will strengthen procedures on breaches of trust and amend the definition of conflict of interest to better reflect OECD guidelines.
An NGO accuses. In a press release published on 23 January, the NGO PAN Europe (Pesticide Action Network) says it is certain, in the light of the documents it has obtained from EFSA after an access-to-documents request, that EFSA has no control over infiltration by industry representatives into its working group on toxic chemical products. “The EFSA working group on TTC (Threshold of Toxicological Concern) was convened and organised by Susan Barlow, a UK private consultant to industry and a long-time insider of the chemical industry-funded lobby group ILSI (International Life Sciences Institute)”, PAN Europe states.
EFSA's new scientific strategy for 2012-2016 is available on line at:
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/mb111215/docs/mb111215-ax5adopted.pdf (AN/transl.rt)