The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is holding a conference on Transparency in Risk Assessment on 3 October 2013 in Parma, Italy, from 09:00 to 16:15.
The conference is part of an initiative EFSA launched in January 2013, designed to facilitate public access to data used by the Authority in risk assessments and to enhance transparency in its scientific decision-making processes.
The conference offers EFSA’s civil society stakeholders the opportunity to express their views and suggestions on how to further ensure transparency in the scientific decision-making process, including:
- how best and to what extent technical data and information used in risk assessments can be made available to the broader scientific community and interested parties, as well as when and how this could be done,
- how to further enhance the transparency of the overall risk assessment process during the risk assessment phases - consisting of initiation, assessment and publication of the opinion.
Proposals put forward at the conference will be considered when revising the Authority’s policy on openness and transparency in 2014.
To ensure a wide spectrum of views is heard, the one-day event foresees an active role for stakeholders. In the morning session, stakeholder organisations active in the main areas of interest of the food and feed chain (consumers, non-governmental organisations and industry), will have the opportunity to share their views in the area of transparency with participants.
The second part of the conference foresees break-out sessions to hear views and suggestions on specific aspects of the process such as:
- Possible further initiatives to increase transparency
- Where is the right balance? Cost versus benefits of possible initiatives
- The role of stakeholders in this process
- Other topics to be extracted from the morning’s discussion
Online registration is now open on EFSA’s website at http://registerofquestions.efsa.europa.eu/roqFrontend/meetingsub/meetingid/6
The deadline for registrations is 10 September 2013. Further logistical information about the event will be sent to registered participants upon confirmation of attendance. Registrations might be closed before 10 September in case the maximum room capacity is reached before that date.
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