A new European food authority, plans for which will be announced in January by the Commissioner for Public Health and Consumers, Mr David Byrne, should be concerned with independent scientific testing and leave decisions on risk management to politically accountable processes, Mr Byrne said yesterday.
The authority will replace the current range of scientific advisory committees. Mr Byrne, speaking to journalists at the publication of a report by three independent scientists on the shape of such an authority, stressed the critical issues of transparency and independence to build confidence in any institutional response to the recent food crises.
He welcomed the thrust of the report, but it is clear he will depart from some of its recommendations. He is understood to favour an independent agency while the report opts for a complex inter-institutional office.
Sources close to Mr Byrne said he believed the authority should not encompass environmental or public health monitoring, as proposed by the committee, but be limited to food.
Mr Byrne made it clear yesterday that he saw the authority being heavily involved in disseminating "good news" about food, such as providing information on food and promoting healthy diets. It would have to establish close relations with national agencies.
"In principle there should be a system for providing scientific advice which is independent, transparent, of excellent scientific quality and capable of being understood by non-experts," the report says of the challenge he faces. "There is also the need to have to respond rapidly and effectively to issues of public, industrial and political concern."
The report strongly advocates public funding "since crises such as those relating to BSE, beef hormones, dioxin, Coca-Cola and GMO problems are not manageable if the resources are dependent on industrial funding."
The experts recommend the organisation should be based in Brussels to allow close and fast liaison with the Commission.
