How strong is the case for a European Food Authority?
There is certainly a need to ensure the highest standards of food safety throughout the EU. Recent food scares have demonstrated that the framework for maintaining these standards has been lacking or ineffective. However, eight of the fifteen EU member states, including the UK, France and Germany, have now set in place Food Standards Agencies or their equivalents. If the proposed new authority is merely to duplicate the work of national agencies then it is unnecessary and will lead to a blanket increase in bureaucracy and regulation, which is likely to further reduce the competitiveness of the EU food industries. If, on the other hand, the intention is to complement the work of national agencies and through collaboration to strengthen the provision of effective, independent and well-founded scientific advice on food matters throughout Europe then this could be useful. This would be the case especially for those member states which do not have a Food Agency of their own, and in the cont
