Food safety: action plan, European Food Authority. White Paper

The European Parliament adopted the report drafted by Mr John BOWIS (EPP-ED, Uk) on the Commission White Paper on food safety. The resolution was adopted by 461 to 12 votes with 9 abstentions. In adopting the resolution, the European Parliament calls for its own involvement in setting up the food authority through the codecision procedure. The resolution also calls on the Commission in view of the forthcoming Sixth Framework Programme, to enhance and adapt the role of food safety research and extend it to cover consumer concerns regarding both the safety and the quality of products. It also calls on the Commission to develop a strategy to empower and encourage candidate countries to comply with the highest food safety standards and to this end, establish reliable and effective indicators to enable practical assessments to be made of the adoption by the applicant countries of the "acquis communautaire" with regard to food safety before accession. Furthermore, the European Parliament calls on the Commission to present, as soon as possible, a detailed estimate of the costs of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) performing its duties properly. With regard to the EFSA itself, notwithstanding its many roles and functions, the resolution recognises that the EFSA cannot have a legislative remit. With regard to the White Paper's Action Plan on Food Safety, the European Parliament believes that it should be divided into 4 categories: priorities for legislation, less urgent items for legislation in due course, consolidation measures and finally, matters more appropriate for health promotion activity. Finally, the resolution calls on the Commission to examine whether the content of the numerous specific labelling rules cannot be covered in the labelling directive (79/112/EC).�