EU agencies and institutions

In the European food safety system, risk assessment is done separately from risk management. As a result, EFSA is an independent European agency funded by the EU budget that operates separately from the European Commission, European Parliament and EU Member States. EFSA’s scientific work informs the decisions of the European Commission, the European Parliament and other EU institutions.

To fulfil our mandate we also work closely with a range of partner organisations operating in the EU food safety system.

Network of EU agencies

The Directors of EU agencies have established a network to provide a forum for exchanging views and experiences on issues of common interest and new developments. From the 1 March 2009 until the end of February 2010, EFSA will coordinate the agencies network. This role entails chairing meetings of the network, coordinating activities between meetings and heading a troika involving the previous and future chairs, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The network meets routinely three times year. On the 10 June 2009 Agency Executive Directors met to outline the achievements during 2008 and plan the 2009 objectives as well as to share recruitment good practices among agencies. More about EU agencies.

Cooperation agreements

EFSA works with other EU agencies and institutions active in closely related fields by exchanging information and cooperating on matters of mutual interest. To reinforce these relations EFSA seeks to sign Memoranda of Understanding with other EU agencies on enhancing cooperation and information exchange.

EFSA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to further develop information exchange, cooperation and mutual understanding between both organisations, in particular given the need to establish rules of procedure concerning substances for which an opinion has been sought in a food safety context.
 
EFSA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the  European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to increase cooperation and exchange scientific information on topics of mutual interest including food safety, control of communicable diseases, infectious diseases prevention and emergency response.

EFSA has also signed a collaboration agreement with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre to strengthen the cooperation in the field of food and feed safety, animal health and welfare, plant health and nutrition.

Memorandum of Understanding between EFSA and the ECHA(0.4Mb)

Memorandum of Understanding between EFSA and the ECDC(0.6Mb)

Collaboration agreement between EFSA and JRC(0.9Mb)

Example of scientific outputs

EFSA cooperates with other EU agencies to jointly produce some of its scientific outputs, and in other cases receives support or scientific data from them which feeds into its work. Here are some examples: