Brussels, 01/08/2014 (Agence Europe) - A step has been taken in the revision of the transparency rules of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), with the publication, on Thursday 31 July, of a document on the update of the technical rules applicable since 2012 to declarations of interest for the selection of scientific experts and EFSA staff (see EUROPE 10568).
The next stage will be more strategic and will consist of revising EFSA's independence policy and scientific decision-making process. It will be carried out in 2015.
Among the new elements brought in by the technical revision of the rules applicable to future declarations of interest are:
the obligation for “Food Safety Organisations” to receive more than 50% of their funding from public sources, in order to be recognised as such;
a precise definition of what is meant by “family members”, namely spouses, registered partners and dependent descendants;
the requirement for all staff members who have been allocated grades in administrative and supporting roles to submit an annual declaration of interests.
These updated rules will come into effect in September of this year and will apply in the screening process currently underway for experts for the renewal of the Authority's scientific committee, and eight of its ten scientific panels in 2015 (see EUROPE 11103).
EFSA believes that this update will make the implementation rules of its independence policy easier to understand and clarify the application details for the examination of the declarations when selecting scientific experts and EFSA staff.
The technical review of the policies and procedures is based on the experience of the last two years and also takes account of feedback from the European Parliament, the European Ombudsman, the European Court of Auditors (particularly the report on the management of conflicts of interest) and civil society, EFSA states.
For the more strategic reflections to be carried out in 2015, EFSA will take account of the main lessons learnt from the special meeting on openness and transparency, which it held in June of this year with senior EFSA staff and members of its Stakeholder Consultative Platform.
Readers may recall the reform carried out by EFSA 2012 to improve transparency and openness, aiming to restore confidence in the impartiality and independence of its work - two critical requirements for a body which is a pillar of European scientific assessment feeding into the work of the authorities responsible for risk management in the EU. (AN)