Brussels, 05/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - With a preliminary budget maintained at around €79.6 million for 2015, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) will conclude its scientific risk assessment and advice and organise its second scientific conference in Milan as part of the EXPO 2015 event. The 2015 programme is an integral part of EFSA' multiannual programme adopted on 18 December for three years by members of the management committee. The programme seeks to guarantee that the expertise, data and methods employed by EFSA are used to serve the needs of the EU in an optimum way.
Some projects will be carried out over several years: - the Prometheus project will seek to provide a more precise definition of the principles, processes and methods relevant to the use of evidence in scientific assessments based on existing EFSA work; - the Matrix project seeks to provide those requesting information with product assessment regulated by a clear and more productive system for improving life-cycle management requests and digital dossiers; - the project for managing scientific data and molecular typing seeks to create a European wide axis for collecting, accessing and analysing data; - Step 2018 will help improve EFSA performance through the centralisation of planning and follow-up functions; - the Open EFSA project will include greater transparency and openness in the scientific decision-making processes. The management board is seeking to extend (next March) the mandate for the “consultative platform of interested parties” to provide platform and EFSA members with the time to look at the best ways of optimising their respective relations. (AN)