PRESIDENT'S REPORT

I present this report on behalf of our President, Dietrich Gorny, who is prevented by illness from being with us today.

Since we last met in Paris in September 2004, EFLA has been active in all its usual areas. There was of course no Congress in 2005, but we are now here in Vienna for the 16th Congress on "How to make Food Law in an Enlarged Europe". With over 70 delegates this looks like being yet another successful congress. The Association's thanks are particularly due to our Vice-President, Daniela Muchna, and all her helpers for the large amount of work that they have put into the Congress and its success.

During the past 2 years we have held a series of workshops in Brussels on various topics of the moment. In April 2005 our subject was "How to inform the consumer of the origin of the product" and our speaker was Mr Luis Gonzalez Vaque of the EU Commission. In June 2005 we discussed "The application of soft law in the food sector" when our speaker was again Mr Luis Gonzalez Vaque. In September 2005 we discussed a judgement from the European Court of Justice of 9 June 2005 on a series of cases between individual companies and the German government (Cases C211/03, C299/03 and C316/03-C318/03). We were addressed by Madame Marie-Jose Jonczy of the EU Commission Legal Services. In March 2006 Mr Paolo Caricato and Mr Ronald Dwinger of the EU Commission (DGSANCO) spoke to us on "The Hygiene Package." Lastly in June 2006 the subject was "Novel Foods" and the speaker was Madame Päivi Mannerkorpi of the EU Commission (DGSANCO). All workshops attracted up to 20 plus members and provoked lively discussion of the subject in hand.

We currently have 6 corporate and 90 individual members of the Association. The Council has met 3 times since the last General Assembly and the Executive Committee has met a further 4 times. All the meetings were concerned with the day-to-day running of EFLA and the planning and organisation of the workshops and of the Congress. Of the established working groups only the Food and Health Working Group under the chairmanship of Guy Valkenborg has been active. It met in September 2006 to consider the draft EU Commission proposals on Nutrition and Health Claims. The results of its deliberations were presented to the Congress this afternoon by Marie Dubitsky. Thanks to her and Guy for that.

We have maintained our presence in various meetings of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and its subsidiary committees. The Codex Committee on General Principles has been particularly active. We were present at its meetings in Paris in November 2004, April 2005 and April 2006. We were also represented at meetings of the Nutrition and Dietary Foods Committee in Bonn in November 2004; the Food Additives Committee in The Hague in April 2006; the Labelling Committee in Ottawa in May 2006; and at the Codex Alimentarius Commission meeting in Geneva in July 2006. As necessary we made considered interventions at these meetings and I believe that our contributions are valued by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. We were also represented at the meeting of the Co-ordination Committee for Africa in January 2005. I pass on the Association's thanks to those officers and council members who have taken the trouble to represent us at these various meetings over the past 2 years at no expense to EFLA.

As you will realise, no organisation like EFLA functions without a lot of work in the background. Thanks are particularly due to our Secretary General, Nicole Coutrelis, and her staff for all their work. Thanks also to the Treasurer, Guy Valkenborg. You have yet to hear his report, but I hope that you will agree with me that he has kept our finances in very good order. Thanks also to the vice-presidents and council members for their support and guidance. Finally thanks to you, the members, who, by your presence at various workshops and here at the Congress, make the existence of EFLA possible.

I look forward to a further successful 2 years for EFLA until we meet again.

Charles Cockbill
Vice-President and Immediate Past President
On behalf of Dietrich Gorny, President.

STATUTORY ELECTIONS
 
The following candidates were elected for the Council and for the functions of President, Vice-Presidents and Secretary General.