EFSA News Item, 19 January 2005
In its first gathering of the New Year, the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) Management Board adopted the Authority's 2005 Management Plan. 2005 will be strategic for the growth of EFSA with continued expansion of the Authority's scientific activities as well as its permanent establishment in Parma .
The Management Plan consolidates the key objectives of EFSA in relation to its scientific and communications activities, the Advisory Forum as well as External Relations. In 2005, the Authority will further build its capacity in all areas of competence in order to deliver its mandates and to continue to meet the expectations of European and national institutions, stakeholders and the general public. During this meeting, EFSA's Management Board also discussed the management of in-house scientific work and EFSA's training and development policy.
EFSA's Management Board reviewed and adopted today an ambitious work programme for the Authority in 2005. Stuart Slorach, Chair of the Board reaffirmed that “EFSA's recruitment drive will be fundamental to ensure that the Authority is fully poised to address its increasing workloadand to carry out the extra demands being placed on it by legislation.” In 2005, EFSA's core staff (Temporary Agents with 5 year contracts) levels are expected to double from 102 at the end of 2004 to reach an expected target of 194. It will be essential for the Authority to continue to recruit senior scientists with a high level of scientific expertise in order to effectively fulfil its mandate in the area of risk assessment.
With Science at the core of EFSA's activities, one of the main objectives for 2005 is to expand and further consolidate the in-house support to the work of the Scientific Committee and the eight Scientific Expert Panels so that they may continue to increase their output of scientific opinions and advice. In 2005, it is expected that EFSA will receive over 170 requests for scientific opinions from the European Commission, the European Parliament and MemberStates. Self-tasking activities, although limited in number, will also continue to be an important element of EFSA's work in 2005 in the areas of harmonisation of risk assessment methodology, important horizontal matters and where newly emerging issues are brought to EFSA's attention.
Specific work items already on the scientific agenda include the new Regulation on nutrition and health claims made on food (COM(2003) 424 Final adopted by the Commission in July 2003) which will be addressed by the Panel on dietetic products, nutrition and allergies (NDA); the pesticide risk assessment peer review and; the new regulation on Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) for pesticides. Additional key scientific activities will incorporate the expansion and maintenance of scientific networks as well as the organisation of Scientific Colloquia, focusing on fundamental scientific issues.
EFSA's 2005 Management Plan and all documents relating to the Management Board meeting are available on the EFSA website at: http://www.efsa.eu.int/mboard/mb_meetings/771_en.html