5. Food Safety: Building EU Regulatory Capacity Through the Backdoor

Council Directive 73/241/EEC relating to cocoa and chocolate products intended for human consumption, amended by Directive 2000/36/EC.

Art.22(1), Regulation 178/2002. See Chapter III of this Regulation in regard to EFSA’s structure, tasks and responsibilities.

Ibid., Art.14(1).

Ibid., Art.14(2)(a) and (b) respectively.

Ibid., Art.14(4)(a) and (b).

Ibid., Art.17(1) and Art.19.

Ibid., Recital 28 and 29, Regulation 178/2002.

Ibid., Art.18, Regulation 178/2002.

Ibid., Art.17(2), Regulation 178/2002.

Ibid., Art.22(2), also see Art.29, and Art.31, Art.33 and Art.34.

Ibid., Art.22(6), Art.23(a)

Ibid., Art.22(5)(a) and (c) respectively.

Ibid., Recital 34.

Ibid., Art.22(7).

Ibid., Art.22(8).

Ibid., Art.23(b).

Ibid., Art.28(1) and (4)(a)-(h).

Ibid., Art.28(2).

Ibid., Art.28(4).

Ibid., Art.25(1), Recital 41.

Ibid., Art.25(1).

Ibid., Art.25 and 26.

Ibid., Art.27(1).

Ibid., Art.27(3) and (4), Recital 44.

Art.45 and Art.46, Regulation No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules.

Please note that at the time of writing (February 2014), a reform proposal of Regulation 882/2004 is being discussed (see Commission Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health, plant reproductive material, plant protection products and amending Regulations (EC) No 999/2001, 1829/2003, 1831/2003, 1/2005, 396/2005, 834/2007, 1099/2009, 1069/2009, 1107/2009, Regulations (EU) No 1151/2012, [….], and Directives 98/58/EC, 1999/74/EC, 2007/43/EC, 2008/119/EC, 2008/120/EC and 2009/128/EC)). By tying various sectoral Regulations and Directives and Regulation 882/2004 into one piece of legislation, it is primarily concerned with a change to the manner in which official controls are financed, which has so far been under discretion of Member States. The proposal foresees that Member States should fully recover these costs. It also foresees the harmonisation of import controls across the plant, animal, feed and food areas.

Art.46, Regulation 882/2004.

Interviewee F3.

Speech by Tim Smith, then Chief Executive of the FSA, entitled ‘What the Food Standards Agency does to ensure healthy food’, 19 November 2008.

Speech by Tim Smith, then Chief Executive of the FSA, to the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers conference Saturday 18 October 2008.

Speech by Tim Smith, then Chief Executive of the FSA, for a meat trades journal event, 13 February 2009.

Please note that the research conducted for this project focuses on the FSA’s role, rather than the role of FSS, in order to contain complexity.

Speech by Tim Smith, then Chief Executive of the FSA, entitled ‘National key priorities for the FSA and local authorities’, 9 April 2009.

Speech by Dr Ian Reynolds, then Deputy Chair of the FSA, entitled ‘Future Challenges for Enforcement’, 15 October 2007, p. 2.

Ibid., Art.27.

See EFSA’s Decision concerning the establishment and operation of European Networks of scientific organisations operating in the fields within the Authority’s mission.

Art.30(1), Regulation 178/2002.

Ibid., Art.30(2).

Ibid., Art.30(4).

Isoflavones are a class of plant substances, which often occur naturally in foodstuffs. For example, they occur in high concentrations in soybeans. Some scientific studies point out beneficial effects of these substances (such as a reduction in breast cancer). At the same time, there is evidence that they can have detrimental effects for people with particular conditions, such as a thyroid dysfunction.

Speech by Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, then Executive Director of EFSA, entitled ‘Food Safety in Europe: Progress through Cooperation’, Oslo, 12.June 2008.

Also pointed out by interviewee F1.

Speech by Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, then Executive Director of EFSA, entitled ‘Joining forces for safer food in Europe: the food safety system in the EU’, Lisbon, 19.September 2007.

As a result of this concern, the European Parliament delayed its approval of EFSA’s past expenditure for the year 2010. The European Medicines Agency and the European Environment Agency was also subjected to this process by the Parliament. Similarly, the Court of Auditors has criticised the presence of conflicts-of-interest of experts in four EU agencies, including EFSA.

Interviewee F4.

Art.44, Regulation 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004.

on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules.

Ibid., Art.56. Also see Art.53 of Regulation 178/2002.

Interviewee F10.

As expressed by interviewees.

Interviewee F8.

Interviewee F10.

Ibid.

Interviewees F8 and F10. This happened in the working group on meat and poultry hygiene (‘Fleisch- und Geflügelfleischhygiene und fachspezifische Fragen von Lebensmitteln tierischer Herkunft, AFFL’).

Interviewee F13.

Speech by Tim Smith, then Chief Executive of the FSA, entitled ‘Is dairy fit for the twenty-first century diet?’ Delivered at the Dairy UK Conference, 16. September 2008.

Interviewee F12.

Interviewee F13.

Interviewee F8.

Interviewee F10.

Interviewee F8. This view was also expressed by interviewees F5, F6, F10, F11 and F12.

See the Commission’s annual reports on national implementation of EU law in this regard. Largely, they show that only long-lasting cases of incompliance (often found in Greece in this policy area) result in infringement proceedings.

Interviewee F6.

Interviewee M10.

Interviewee F5, F6, F10.

Interviewees emphasised the importance of this. FVO officials value the specific expertise of national experts and an interviewee who has acted as national expert explained the value of acquainting oneself with other administrative systems and control practices.

The legal mandate for the programme derives from Art.51, Regulation 882/2004.

As stated by Interviewee F9. An example is the so-called ‘hygiene package‘ (Regulation No 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 laying down specific hygiene rules for on the hygiene of foodstuffs; and No 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs.

Interviewee F12.

Interviewee F9.

This view was also unequivocally expressed by all interviewees.

Also pointed out by interviewees.

F6, F8, F11, F12.

Interviewee F5.

The empirical analysis of this chapter was supported by the following interviews: