POLITICS VERSUS SCIENCE: APPORTIONING ... - Buffalo State

food regime. The EFSA’s Advisory Forum is a body of representatives of Member
States’ food safety authorities, while scientists staff its Scientific Committee and Panels.
The latter is advisory rather than regulatory. The regulatory function is carried out by the
Commission’s Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health.
The expectation of EFSA as part of a "vast network" of experts and decision-
makers, brings us to our third question: how can we evaluate food safety policy within
the broader framework of regulatory governance in the European Union?
The European Commission has long cultivated policy networks to coordinate the single
market, an alternative to the independent regulatory authorities found in many federal
systems. The European Food and Safety Authority (EFSA) is at the center of a network
of Member State regulatory bodies to exchange and disseminate scientific assessment of
food safety. The EFSA, at the same time, belongs to the Commission’s network
organized to manage risk and communicate risk measures. 16
The European food safety regime offers an opportunity to examine the 1) the
Commission’s coordination and management of a critical policy area 17 and 2) an
independent body’s development, implementation, and coordination of a network for
food safety assessment. The EFSA is expected to resolve a longstanding problem,
namely, to reconcile disparate risk assessments among Member States, which can either
16 “The Commission remains fully responsible for communicating risk management measures. The
appropriate information should therefore be exchanged between the Authority and the Commission.”
(Commission 2002a: 5). With regard to the rapid alert system: “A system for rapid alert already exists in
the framework of Council Directive 92/59/EEC of 29 June 1982…The revised system should be managed
by the Commission and include as members of the network the Member States, the Commission and the
Authority.” (Commission 2002a: 5).
17 Critical because it is straddles low (economics) and high (security of citizens) politics.
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