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