Food Safety for an Enlarged Europe

CIAA’s third Business Support Programme (BSP) has successfully come to an end in March 2005. This marked the end of a four-year long, sustained effort by CIAA to assist the food and drink industry in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) in their entry into the EU single market.

Successive projects over the last four years have been the result of fruitful cooperation between CIAA, National Federations and European sector associations. The overall budget for BSP activities within the CEECs has amounted to €4.2 million (80% funded by the European Commission and 20% funded by CIAA and its partners).

The first two BSP projects (BSP 1 and BSP 2) took place between 1999 and 2002. This was then followed by the “New BSP” project that started in 2003 and focused on three main objectives:

• Strengthening the CEECs’ National Federations;

• Integrating the community acquis into the CEECs’ food and drink industry sector;
• Directing support to the CEECs’ companies in order to help them meet EU food safety requirements through the implementation of food safety management systems.

As a result, activities with the eight new Member States’ National Federations (Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia) have been extended and strengthened. The National Federations of Romania and Bulgaria, countries expected to join the EU in a few years time, have also been closely involved.

BSP Achievements

• Directing on-site assistance to more than 250 companies in the CEECs for the implementation of food safety management systems.
• Disseminating sector-specific information on food law and food safety management systems. In practice, ten seminars (one per country) were organized on issues ranging from food safety awareness to GHP/HACCP systems. Three meetings were also held on food safety issues along the supply chain, with a high level of participation from all CEECs.
• Training and deployment of experts, both from the EU and the CEECs. Two extensive workshops were organized on training of experts and project evaluation. Overall, more than 100 experts were deployed within the CEECs. Finally, 52 experts from the CEECs have been given specific training on EU level methodologies and operations within companies.
• Creating an Internet portal and forum for the CEECs, thereby providing access to information on food and drink legislation and other emerging issues within these countries.

The main benefits of these achievements for the food and drink industry have been:

•  The strong contribution made to increased food safety in the CEEC’s companies;

• The improved access to National Federations’ networks;
• The access to reliable market information and the furthering of business contacts within the CEECs’ markets.
  

The BSP Programme allowed CIAA: 

• To develop a strong network within the CEECs;
• To support a wide range of advocacy and communication actions;
• To remain in close contact with local experts.
  

The food and drink sectors associations in the CEECs, and through them the food and drink companies, have been reliable and constructive partners throughout this process.

BSP Challenges

Implementation of the evolving food legislation in the CEECs will remain a challenge for the years to come. CIAA, with the help of its local members, will continue to provide all the necessary assistance to make this process as smooth as possible.