CCEXEC86/ Steve Wearne "Collaboration key to making progress"

With the 86th Session of the Executive Committee of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CCEXEC86) starting next week at FAO HQ, Rome, the Codex Secretariat sat down with the Chairperson, Steve Wearne (United Kingdom), to talk about the Committee, its current and future work and the status of the new Codex Strategic Plan.

Steve, thanks for your time. Let’s start from the basics. Can you explain to our general audience, what is the role of CCEXEC?

CCEXEC is a work management committee. It supports the  Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) in its core role of agreeing new work and advancing and adopting standards. It also monitors the progress of work in subsidiary bodies and undertakes a critical review of issues scheduled for discussion by CAC and makes recommendations. Moreover, CCEXEC has other specific roles delegated to it by our Procedural Manual, including advising CAC on strategic planning, and that is scheduled to be our focus for much of our time at CCEXEC86 as we look to further develop the draft Codex Strategic Plan 2026-2031.

As you were saying, one of the roles of CCEXEC is to assist in the management of the Commission’s programme of standards development, by conducting a critical review. Tell us about the texts currently under discussion.

We will be looking at draft standards and new work proposals from the six committees that held sessions between the end of January and middle of May. This has been a very productive period: we will have in front of us a mixture of horizontal and commodity standards from a revision to the standard for olive oil to new provisions in the General Standard for Food Additives. We have also seen in the reports from committee Chairpersons a keen focus on continuous improvement of working practices within the committees as we are all working within resource constraints.

We know that the Strategic Plan is one of the subjects you have been particularly active on and this session of CCEXEC will also provide a forum for discussion on this topic. What is the status quo in this?

This is a key stage in the development of the plan. CCEXEC last year developed text for a large part of the Codex Strategic Plan 2026-2031 and we will be considering comments and suggestions from Members and Observers of this text. More importantly, CCEXEC will be using the input from Members and Observers to identify possible strategic goals and outcomes for Codex for the period to 2031.

Looking at the future: can you give us some of the highlights of new work proposals for Codex that will be discussed next week?

There is a wide range of new work proposals from the six committees, from standards on spices that have been used for millennia such as coriander, cardamon and cinnamon, to standards for new sources for the production of food ingredients, such as microbial omega-3 oils.

Final question. There will be a number of new Members at this session of CCEXEC. Do you have any special advice for them?

I would ask them to remember the special roles that members have in the Executive Committee. Apart from me and the vice-chairpersons of CAC, who are members of the Executive Committee ad personam, there are six regional coordinators and seven members elected on a geographic basis. Although those thirteen members are Member countries, their role in the Executive Committee isn’t to reflect their national positions. Regional coordinators are expected to bring the perspectives from their regions as a whole. Members elected on a geographic basis are expected to serve the best interests of Codex. As always, collaboration will be key to making progress in the committee.

Learn more

CCEXEC86 meeting page