The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA Programme) came
into force on 1 January 2007 bringing all Pre-Accession support into a
single, focused instrument. Under the IPA, EFSA is implementing the
Programme entitled: “Preparatory Measures for the Participation of the
Candidate countries and the Potential Candidate countries in EFSA”,
financed by the European Commission (EC). In the scope of the Programme,
EFSA is working with the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock
in Turkey and with the food safety authorities in the other countries
with Candidate status (The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
Montenegro, and Serbia), the countries with Potential Candidate status
(Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo) and Croatia as acceding
country, on food and feed safety issues within the EFSA’s remit.
The objectives of this programme are to:
- Prepare the competent bodies in beneficiary countries
active in the fields relevant to the work of EFSA, the European
Commission and the Member States for their future participation in EFSA
networks and fora,
- Contribute to the creation of communication and
information exchange systems enabling future participation of the
beneficiary countries in the EFSA networks and fora,
- Transfer knowledge on methodologies used in the fields
within the remit of EFSA, in particular on risk assessment and data
collection,
- Support the beneficiary countries in their communication activities linked to risk assessment.
- Transfer information on EFSA experiences and experiences from MSs on co-operation with the stakeholders.
The target groups are the competent authorities for food and
feed safety in the Pre-Accession countries, in particular those with a
similar remit as EFSA`s. Therefore, coordination institution of the
Programme in Turkey is the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock.
The Programme activities are focused on the organisation of series
of seminars / workshops / trainings and study tours, and involvement
of the Pre-Accession institutions and their experts.
The target audiences are the experts from the Competent
Authorities for food and feed safety in the Pre-Accession countries, in
particular those with a similar remit as EFSA’s. Representatives of
senior management, decision makers, service managers, scientific
networks leaders, communication officers, and scientists take part in a
range of activities within the Programme.
Participation in the Programme activities provided the experts of
our country with an overall knowledge on EFSA and the EU food safety
system, primarily within the area of risk assessment and risk
communication. It is expected that the Programme would enable our
Ministry’s experts to be involved in all mechanisms for information
sharing established between EFSA and MSs. Furthermore, participation of
the experts in scientific and technical events organised by EFSA
improved their knowledge on risk assessment and risk communication
works.
See the list of activities that representatives from Turkey participated since October 2006
See for the details of the EFSA pre-accession program