Brussels, 05/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - Highly qualified scientific expertise, impartiality, a transparency culture, and awareness of the risks associated with the food chain, as well as the usefulness of the role of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) as a pillar of European scientific assessment to the service of authorities responsible for EU risk management - all these are highlighted in an external evaluation report of EFSA activities published on Wednesday 5 September.
The report, which is drafted by the international auditors Ernst & Young, states that EFSA operates in a generally satisfactory way - including where the independence of its experts is concerned - in light of the missions entrusted to it. To judge by the report's conclusions, EFSA has fully assumed its responsibilities despite a working environment that is increasingly complex and demanding. It has also reached its key objectives by providing its partners and other interested parties with the necessary scientific and technical support. More work, however, must be done with regard to the transparency of decision-making and on communication to improve the way EFSA operates, the report states.
This is very heartening for EFSA, after being greatly disparaged by NGOs which still doubt its impartiality despite new rules adopted by EFSA applying to the declarations of interest adopted at the end of 2011 (see EUROPE 10643), and the Parliament's refusal to grant EFSA discharge for its budget 2010. EFSA Executive Director Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle nonetheless hopes discharge can be obtained. This at least was what she intimated to a small group of journalists in Brussels on Wednesday, when presenting the main results of the evaluation report drafted according to the reference terms established by the EFSA board in agreement with the European Commission, as well as on the basis of questionnaires and interviews of representatives from EU institutions, member states, NGOs, etc.
Geslain-Lanéelle took the view that, on the whole, EFSA has fulfilled its mission, saying: “This external evaluation underlines that EFSA operates to the highest standards - particularly with regard to the quality of our scientific opinions and risk assessment methodologies”. There is one exception, NGOs, she said, who are critical but which nonetheless rate EFSA as average. She went on to say that NGOs would like all experts who have worked or been in contact with industry, in whatever activity and whenever that contact took place, not to be eligible to sit on a panel,, but said she found this was not “realistic”.
In order to ensure that EFSA takes good note of the report's recommendations, Geslain-Lanéelle acknowledges that there is room for it to do better and that it is necessary to: - better programme and better define the priorities of work in order to continue to ensure the best level of public health; - improve early identification of emergent risks; - improve the transparency of the decision-making process, especially in the different EFSA panels; - increase cooperation with member states to facilitate better appropriation of EFSA scientific opinions in the 27 member states; - and increase the presence of EFSA on the international scene. Geslain-Lanéelle said that they had made a good contribution to Codex Alimentarius, for example, but that they needed to be more ambitious: - improving the clarity of communication, simplifying their language which is still very technical and difficult to understand. The recommendations will be used to start an open debate with all EFSA's partners and interested partners, including the European Commission, the Parliament, the member states and EFSA's management board. Geslain-Lanéelle said that they wanted the debate to fuel the management board's reflection in October, before it makes recommendations in December. EFSA's institutional conference, which will take place in Parma on 13 December, will offer a privileged occasion for debate. EFSA is already counting on stepping up its effort on two points: (1) the development of technical hearings. Geslain-Lanéelle says that this will be done for the preparation of the opinion on aspartame for which EFSA intends to start a public consultation at the end of 2012/start of 2013 with a meeting of scientific experts from all the member states. The opinion should be finalised at the end of May 2013, she says; (2) the improvement of the way panels work due to the pilot project started at the beginning of the year to associate observers to their work and enable question and answer sessions between experts and observers. EFSA's executive director says that they will be more attentive to subjects that are sensitive for the public like GMOs, bees, pesticides, food additives, and also other important files like chemical contaminants and microbiological risks. The strict implementation of the new rules on the conflict of interests will also be a priority. The Ernst & Young report is the second evaluation report on EFSA and is considered to be independent. This evaluation takes place every six years as set out in Article 61 of EFSA's Founding Regulation. The previous evaluation dates back to 2005. (AN/tranls.jl/fl)