Activities of Benedek JÁVOR related to 2014/2108(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2013 PDF (175 KB) DOC (96 KB)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on Discharge 2013: European Food Safety Authority
Amendments (6)
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Encourages the Authority to continue paying special attention to the public opinion and to commit itself as much as possible to an openness and transparency; welcomes, in this respect, the implementing rules for its Policy on Independence and Scientific Decision- Making Processes as adopted by the Authority's Management Board in December 2011; welcomes in this context the set of internal mechanisms and improved presentation and accessibility of information and documents on the Authority's homepage; invites the Authority to further strengthen its policy on the management and prevention of conflicts of interests in order to safeguard independence and transparency in all work areas of the Authority covering both external and interim staff;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes from the Authority that following the consultation with key partners in 2014 it has clarified and partially reviewed its implementing rules regarding the Policy on Independence concerning declarations of interests; observes that the revised procedure for screening of annual, special and oral declarations of interests of the members of the Authority’s Scientific Committee, Scientific Panels and Working Groups introduced the criteria on which the screening is based, as well as the role of the screening officer, who has to immediately report any possible conflict of interests to his or her reporting officer;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Strongly regrets that the main loopholes in the Authority's implementing rules have not been closed despite this review, in particular the fact that the assessment of scientists' interests is performed in reference to the mandate of the panel at stake instead of the Authority's remit - whereas the latter is used as the scope for the declaration of these interests;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8 b. Notes with concern the recent European Ombudsman's ruling concluding that "EFSA should revise its conflict of interest rules, and the related instructions and forms it uses for declarations of interests" to "ensure that those experts who work in academia declare all relevant information to EFSA"; calls on the Authority to have scientists on its panels and working groups disclose the financial arrangements between the departments of the universities they work for and commercial companies when those are in the Authority's remit;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes from the Authority that for employment it applies a two-year cooling- off period on a risk based approach for experts being employed by the food industry, not for all other forms of collaboration with companies in the Authority's remit; reiterates its call that the Authority should apply a two-year cooling-off period to all material interests related to the commercial agrifood sector, including research funding, consultancy contracts and decision-making positions in industry-captured organisations; calls on the Authority to inform the discharge authority of the results of the ongoing impact assessment on the introduction of further cooling-off periods, which will take place in the framework of the forthcoming policy review starting in 2015; demands that this impact assessment uses as first indicator the Authority's independence from the economic sectors it regulates;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11 a. Congratulates the Authority for adopting the reproducibility of its scientific opinions as a policy objective within its Transparency Initiative, and encourages it to deliver on these very important commitments, in particular providing full and pro-active access to the dataset used for these scientific opinions;