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Hello, my name is Dirk
and I work as a lawyer at the
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European Food Safety Authority.
Today, I would like to talk to you
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about how the core values of
EFSA are incorporated in its
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scientific decision-making processes.
The food safety system
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of the European Union is based
on risk assessment.
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Risk assessment that at
the European Union level
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is performed by the European Food
Safety Authority
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and that needs to live up
to core values like
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responsiveness, excellence in science,
independence, openness and transparency.
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Now it is important
to understand that none of these
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core values can be looked at in
isolation, and today I would
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like to demonstrate to you how
this works for excellence in
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science and independence.
EFSA has got the privilege to work with
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the finest experts that are available
in the European Union.
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However, these experts, by the nature of their
background, will have interests.
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However it is important to
note that an interest as such
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does not automatically mean
that it is a conflict of interest,
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but that this needs to
be assessed in a certain context.
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Any system that tries to address
the relationship between
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excellence in science and
independence does need to strike a
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balance between these two core values.
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That is why at EFSA we have
collegial decision-making processes.
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That means that 21 experts with
multi-disciplinary backgrounds,
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with different schools of thought,
do discuss our scientific
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outputs and do agree on
our scientific outputs.
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And that scientific output of EFSA
is never the outcome of a
single individual expert.
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However, EFSA is aware of the fact that
the input of individuals is very important.
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That is why EFSA has set up a
complex system in order to seek
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and collect interest declared by
individuals and to screen them.
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What we do have is a system
where we do ask for an annual
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declaration of interest over the
span of one year which needs
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to be updated on an annual basis.
In addition to that, we have specific
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declarations of interest which
are linked to each meeting the
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expert is supposed to attend to,
and which are linked to the
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agenda of that specific meeting.
And in order to cover the period
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between the specific and the oral
declaration and the meeting as
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such, we have an oral declaration
of meeting
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of declaration of interest,
which is sought at the
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beginning of the meeting.
Now collecting the interest is a very
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important step, but assessing them
and deciding when an interest
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turns into a conflict is of
course in the same way crucial.
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Based on the definition of the OECD,
EFSA has set up a system on how
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to screen interest and to decide
whether they are in conflict or not.
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In order to do so we have
developed this triangle in which
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we on the one hand look at the interest
that has been declared,
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on the other hand we
look at the task of the group
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the expert is going to join, and
we have a look at the role
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the individual expert is going to
perform in that group.
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Within this triangle it is possible for
EFSA to decide whether an interest
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is actually turning into a conflict of
interest and therefore is undermining,
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