Provisional agreement on proposal for General Food Law Regulation

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have reached a provisional agreement on the proposal of the European Commission, tabled last April, amending the General Food Law Regulation, informs the National Sanitary-Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) in a press release sent on Wednesday to AGERPRES.

"An important legislative dossier, taken over and managed by the National Sanitary-Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA), during our country's holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, is the proposal for a Regulation on the General Food Law. On 11 February, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union reached a provisional agreement on the European Commission's proposal tabled last April to amend the General Food Law Regulation. It is a success of ANSVSA's expert team, which has carried out negotiations in the veterinary and food safety filed during three trialogue meetings between Parliament, the Council and the Commission, and eight technical meetings that have taken place since January 1, when Romania took over the Presidency of the Council of the Union European," the ANSVSA release reads.

The proposal follows-up on the European Citizens' Initiative and aims at increasing the transparency of risk assessment at EU level in the food chain, strengthening the reliability, objectivity and independence of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and at reviewing the governance of this institution in order to ensure its long-term sustainability.

The proposal also responds to a fitness check of the General Food Law, completed in January 2018.

"It is a materialization of the EU's desire to guide future food safety strategies towards how to solve key issues at community level such as crisis management, the use of risk assessment tools in decision-making and communication. The establishment of a common European database of studies commissioned to substantiate the authorization files submitted by companies is being sought.The draft regulations intended to ensure the transparency and independence of the EU food safety risk assessment procedure have been provisionally agreed with the Romanian Presidency,"reads the document.

In procedural terms, this agreement is to be confirmed within the Permanent Representatives Committee and then forwarded to the European Parliament for approval, and will be finally forwarded to the Council for final adoption.

The new rules will enter into force on the twentieth day following the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

AGERPRES .