15-18 January 2007

CODEX - Co-ordinating Committee for Europe (25th Session), Vilnius, Lithuania

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The 25th Session of the Codex Coordinating Committee for Europe reached the following conclusions:

MATTERS FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE 30TH SESSION OF THE CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION AND BY THE 59TH SESSION OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:

The Coordinating Committee:

• endorsed the recommendations of the 28th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission regarding the role and activities of Regional Coordinating Committees (para. 7) and made specific comments (paras. 8 – 11);
• urged FAO and WHO to mobilise sufficient resources to allow the CAC to fulfil its mandate. In particular the Committee was very concerned that the option of cancelling the sessions of the Regional Coordinating Committees had been envisaged due to budgetary uncertainty (para. 15);
• endorsed Part 1 of the draft Strategic Plan 2008-2013 (para. 16) and made comments on Part 2 (paras 18- 21) and endorsed Part 3 (para. 22);
• supported Proposals 1 and Proposals 3 to 11 related to the Review of the Codex Committees Structure and Mandates of Codex Committees and Task Forces and made comments (paras. 25-29);
• unanimously agreed that Switzerland be re-appointed as Regional Coordinator for Europe for a second term (para. 54). The delegation of Poland offered to host the next Session of the Committee in Warsaw .

MATTERS REFERRED TO CODEX COMMITTEES AND TASK FORCES

The Coordinating Committee:

Codex Committee on General Principles (CCGP)

• agreed that there was no need to change the current terms of reference of the coordinating committees (para. 33);
• agreed a position on the roles of the Regional Coordinators and the Members Elected on a Geographical Basis and that they should be clarified in the Procedural Manual by the next Session of the Codex Committee on General Principles (para. 35);
• congratulated the working group on Working Principles for Risk Analysis for Food Safety for Application by Governments for its achievement and fully supported the progress of the document in the Codex procedure (para 63);
• supported a principle of ethics concerning the export or re-export of food (para. 68).

Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL)

• expressed a number of positions concerning the Labelling of Foods and Food Ingredients obtained through certain Techniques of Genetic Modification/Genetic Engineering (para. 66)
• fully supported the final adoption of all individual cheese standards as proposed by the Codex Committee on Milk and Milk Products including the declaration of the country of origin (i.e. country of manufacture) (para. 64).

OTHER MATTERS

The Coordinating Committee:

• noted information by FAO and WHO on activities complementary to the work of Codex, including capacity building in the region (paras. 37 - 43);
• noted the reports submitted by delegations on national food control system and consumer participation in food standards setting (paras. 44 - 49);
• recognized that within the European Union and the European Economic Area, the national food standards were harmonized with the regulations of the European Community and the latter regulations were set taking account of Codex standards and related texts. Therefore Codex standards and related texts carried an important weight, providing a basis for the food standards applied in the region (para. 51).