En 1964, en su segundo período de sesiones, la Comisión del Codex Alimentarius estableció el Comité Coordinador para Europa, que sucedería al “Consejo Europeo del Codex Alimentarius” y sustituiría al "Grupo Consultivo para Europa", creado en su primer período de sesiones en 1963.
La primera reunión del Comité Coordinador para Europa se celebró en julio de 1965 en Berna (Suiza) y a ella asistieron 16 países de la región.
El coordinador actual, Alemania, tiene su sede en el Ministerio Federal de Alimentación y Agricultura (BMEL).
Las prioridades fundamentales de Alemania como coordinador son las siguientes:
- reducir los obstáculos a la participación activa de los miembros de la región en los trabajos del Codex;
- aumentar la sensibilización sobre el papel del Codex y de la inocuidad de los alimentos en general en la transición hacia sistemas alimentarios sostenibles;
- promover el uso de las normas del Codex en los ámbitos prioritarios como la resistencia a los antimicrobianos (RAM).
Con el fin de abordar estas prioridades, el coordinador aprovechará las sinergias de las actividades internacionales y regionales de la Secretaría del Codex, la FAO y la OMS, así como de los observadores del Codex.
Vice-minister of Health, Kazakhstan, Ms L. Aktayeva (main picture) welcomed delegates to the thirty-first session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Europe. "I am confident that active participation of delegates in this meeting will make a significant contribution to solving various issues in the field of food safety, which will strengthen health of people and nations", she said. Drawing on the impetus of the Sustainable Development Goals Aktayeva said, “Codex standards are directly related to food safety and fair practices [...]
The European region is not only the largest in the Codex Alimentarius Commission but is probably the most diverse. It resembles a bridge between the West and the East. It is symbolic that for the first time, Kazakhstan, geographically located both in Europe and in Asia currently serves as coordinator for the region.
The FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Europe (CCEURO) will bring together in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from 30 September to 4 October 2019, delegates and observers from 51 countries that make [...]
As the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS) begins in Budapest, we spoke to Attila Nagy who takes over as Chairperson at this session. A veterinarian and microbiologist, in November 2018 Attila was appointed Director of the newly established Food Chain Safety Laboratory Directorate in Hungary.
Attila, thanks for your time. You were born just two years after Hungary started hosting CCMAS. What, in your view, are the three major changes in analytical methods that have taken place [...]
A delegation led by the Codex Alimentarius Regional Coordinator for Europe, Nailya Karsybekova, visited the Republic of Armenia from 29 to 30 April and the Republic of Moldova on May 2 and 3, to enhance participation of these countries in Codex. During the mission, meetings were held at the Ministries of Agriculture, Ministries of Health, the Inspection Bodies for Food Safety, and at the FAO and WHO Country Offices.
"The visits to Armenia and Moldova provided an opportunity to meet top-level [...]
The Codex European region comprises 52 countries with widely diverse economic, historic and climatic backgrounds as well as differing levels of experience in engaging with Codex. Many countries in the region joined Codex in the early 1960s at the birth of the Codex Alimentarius and some, especially from the East European region only became members since 2000. One of these is Kazakhstan, a Codex member since 2003, now leads the region as Regional Coordinator.
From 4 to 8 February 2019 a [...]
Participants gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 6 to 7 February 2019 for a workshop entitled “Improving National Codex Capacities”, jointly organized by FAO and the Food Safety Agency of Azerbaijan (AFSA). National food control systems in Azerbaijan are undergoing significant change including the establishment of AFSA and the finalization of a food law.
“FAO is responding to the request of the Food Safety Agency of Azerbaijan for support to strengthen the food safety control system, and develop national Codex activities”, said [...]
Codex Members in the Europe region began a three-day meeting in Almaty, Kazakhstan today to improve their skills and knowledge of the online tools used by the food standard-setting partnership and to discuss the regional priorities to propose including in the Codex Strategic Plan (2020-2025).
Zhandarbek Bekshin of the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan, the country leading the Codex Coordinating Committee for Europe, opened the session with a call for establishing a joint position on food trade-related matters in the 51 [...]
A seminar, "Codex Alimentarius in Portugal", was held on 22 June in Lisbon for agri-food sector experts, public and private, including competent authorities and public bodies, associations of different production chains, universities and laboratories.
Issues related to Portuguese participation in the elaboration of EU positions in Codex were discussed, with the division of competences between EU Member States and the European Commission. The main issues under discussion in each of the 19 Codex Committees were also presented by the different national [...]
One role of the regional coordinators in Codex is to bring to the attention of the wider Codex community topics of particular interest emerging from their regions relating to food safety and quality standards or trade. In a historic first for Codex, an Eastern European country — Kazakhstan — has taken the reins of the FAO/WHO Regional Coordinating Committee for Europe (CCEURO), as Regional Coordinator for Europe.
Regional standard for mare’s milk
Several meetings took place in 2017 with a producer of [...]
On January 9, 2018, a training course was held in Lisbon, Portugal, with the objective to reorganize and strengthen the participation of national representatives of different committees in Codex work, as well as, to raise awareness concerning the need to engage all stakeholder groups (Non-governmental organizations, consumer organizations and industry associations) and partners (Ministry of science, health, trade and foreign affairs) in Codex work.
This training was organized and conducted by the General Directorate for Food and Veterinary / Food Safety [...]