Commission Press Release (IP/07/1130), 18 July 2007
Today the European Commission appointed Paola Testori-Coggi as Deputy Director-General of the Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection (DG SANCO). She will be responsible for the Commission's policy on food safety, in particular the safety of the food and feed chain, animal health, animal welfare and plant health. She will also assist the Director-General with overall management.
In her new role, Ms Testori-Coggi will drive the EU's integrated approach to food safety, with coherent farm-to-fork measures and adequate monitoring, while ensuring the effective functioning of the internal market. She will also supervise the consistency of the Directorate-General's policies on food safety with other Commission policies.
Ms Testori-Coggi, a 54-year-old Italian, is currently Director in charge of the safety of the food chain (SANCO.E), with responsibility for food safety legislation — including such sensitive issues as BSE, GMOs, hormones, additives and labelling — and managing food and feed safety crises.
Prior to joining the Health and Consumer Protection DG in 1999, Ms Testori-Coggi spent two and a half years as an adviser in the cabinet of Emma Bonino, the Commissioner responsible for consumer health and food safety, where she helped manage the BSE and dioxin crises, and contributed to a new policy on consumer health and food safety following the European Parliament's recommendations on BSE.
From 1990 to 1992, Ms Testori-Coggi was a member of the cabinet of Vice-President Filippo Pandolfi, Commissioner responsible for science and research, where she dealt with R&D programmes in the life sciences and the environment.
A biologist by training, Ms Testori-Coggi became a Commission official in 1983, dealing with Community legislation on industrial risk and the control of dangerous chemicals. Before joining the Commission, Ms Testori-Coggi was a scientist at the Institute for Water Research in Milan .
Ms Testori-Coggi will take up her new duties in the coming weeks.