2005 discharge: European Food Safety Authority

PURPOSE: presentation of the final accounts of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2005.

CONTENT: this document published in the Official Journal of the EU sets out a detailed account of the implementation of the 2005 budget, including the revenue and expenditure and the balance sheet for the year concerned.

According to this document, the final budget amounted to EUR 36.9 million (against EUR 29.1 million in 2004) including a 100% Community contribution.

As regards the staffing policy, the Authority, whose headquarters are now based in Parma (Italy), officially set out 194 posts in its establishment plan. 124 are currently occupied with + 36 other staff (auxiliary contracts, seconded national experts, local staff, and employment agency staff) totalling 160 (139 in 2004) posts assigned to administrative and operational duties.

Staff expenditure amounted to EUR 16.3 million.

The Authority’s competences and activities are summarised below:

- of the 301 requests for scientific opinions made to the EFSA in 2005 (which represents an increase of 65 % compared with 2004), 163 opinions were adopted and published. They covered many areas including aromatic plants, genetically modified organisms (with the WHO), bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). In addition the Authority published its first annual report on animal diseases and other important publications on the determination of risk in the food sector;

- the communication of risks and, in general, the activities of the communication department saw a 40 % increase in the number of communications to the public in 2005. Consultations of the EFSA’s website also doubled in 2005. The coordination of the communication of risks was stepped up through the advisory forum and workshops organised;

- the networking of the EFSA with interested parties, national authorities and institutional counterparts intensified through the setting-up of a forum for interested parties. The Advisory Forum met five times with a view to working as a network with the national authorities on specific topics such as coordination in the event of a crisis scenario or increasing the use of the extranet linking the national authorities, the Commission and the EFSA;

- as regards the assessment of the EFSA in 2005, the final consultants’ report was published on the EFSA’s website by the Management Board which submitted its recommendations at the end of June 2006.

The complete version of the final accounts may be found at the following address:

http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/about_efsa/efsa_funding/accounts.html