Commission forging ahead with review of procedure

摘要

Without waiting for the opinions that it had itself solicited from scientific committees and citizens, the European Commission proposed, on 14 January, a revision of the 1997 Regulation EC 258/97 on novel foods, a text which touches on the delicate problem of foods containing products from animal cloning.rnIn order to do this, the EU executive says that it has taken account of technological developments, scientific opinions and experience acquired in the context of the legislation's application. But a spokes-rnperson specified that the Commission would wait till June for the opinions of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Group on Ethics (EGE) as well as the results of a Euroba-rometer survey on novel foods and goods derived from cloning. According to these opinions, the Commission could take other measures or modify its proposal, the spokesperson acknowledged.rnIn the text, novel foods are defined as foods and ingredients whose consumption remained negligible in the EU before May 1997, the date on which the regulation came into force1, foods produced throughrnnew technologies or foods consumed in other parts of the world but only a little in the Union.rnThe authorisation procedure will be centralised at the Commission through the EFSA. This centralisation will accelerate and standardise the authorisation procedure, while also making it transparent for applicants. Some provisions aim to protect the data on recently developed innovative foods.