CCEURO33/ Meeting concludes: “Codex is bringing everyone together”

The 33rd session of the Coordinating Committee for Europe has concluded in a spirit of collaboration and agreement on some core issues relevant to the region. In winding up the session, Chairperson Anne Beutling reviewed some of the week’s achievements and said: “I hope that CCEURO33 has helped you make new contacts, and that with that these contacts you’ve made, the coordination and harmonization will further intensify until we meet again."

A number of countries congratulated Germany on hosting a successful meeting and thanked the organizers for the warm welcome. The head of the Uzbek delegation expressed gratitude for the assistance given in this, Uzbekistan’s first CCEURO meeting: “The meeting has taken place in a warm atmosphere,” he said, “we feel a commonality – Codex is bringing everyone together: we are creating a community of countries on all issues of food safety.”

One Health was a recurrent theme throughout the meeting. It was the subject of the keynote speech from Martin Cormican, Professor of Bacteriology at the University of Galway, and also of discussions around Codex work in the region in reference to the implementation of Codex texts on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The meeting also welcomed the reference to the importance of One Health in the draft Codex Strategic Plan 2026-2031. It was noted, too, that FAO and WHO are working to develop capacities in the region on a range of key subjects, including on One Health, as well as on AMR, sustainable food systems transformation, nutrition and official food control systems.

The main food safety and quality issues in the region involve nutrition and healthy diets. Much work is being done in countries of the region on the development of food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) and, as such, CCEURO33 agreed to establish an electronic working group with the support of FAO and WHO, chaired by Germany, and co-chaired by Kazakhstan, Türkiye and Spain, to scope the needs and experiences of Members regarding the development of dietary guidelines and to propose follow-up actions for considerations by CCEURO34.

Delegates agreed on a workplan to implement the current Codex Strategic Plan (2020–2025) and discussed the status and next steps for the Codex Strategic Plan 2026-2031, which is being discussed across all regions.

There were also discussions around the ongoing monitoring of the use and impact of Codex standards, a Codex strategic goal. Besides the general interest on current and future work on the topic, delegates were interested to see that the Codex Code of Practice to Minimize and Contain Foodborne Antimicrobial Resistance (CXC 61-2021) will be included in the 2024 survey.

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CCEURO33 webpage

Photo © FAO/Ilaria Tarquinio