G/TBT/N/EU/186  
 
21 February 2014  
(14-1079)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
NOTIFICATION 
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Notifying Member:  EUROPEAN UNION  
If applicable, name of local government involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission 
Name and address (including telephon e and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :   
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point 
Fax:  +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/    
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff 
heading. ICS numbers may be provided  in addition, where applicable): Novel 
Foods 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Proposal for a 
Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on novel foods (COM(2013) 894 
final) (51 pages, in English).     
6. Description of content:  The proposed regulation repeals Regulation (EC) No 258/97 on 
Novel Foods. It creates in the European Union (EU) a centralised authorisation system, 
with a scientific risk assessment based on food safety and a Commission authorisation decision for the placing of novel foods on the EU market. It provides greater certainty, simplifies and speeds up the authorisation process for applicants thereby reducing 
administrative burden and costs. 
The proposed regulation also introduces an appropriate authorisation process for foods, 
which are new in the European Union but are traditional in third countries. If a history of 
safe food use can be demonstrated in a third country and there are no food safety 
objections from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) or EU Member States the food will be allowed to be placed on the EU market on the basis of a notification from the 
third country's food business operators. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where 
applicable:  Protection of human health and food safety. 
8. Relevant documents:    
Regulation (EC) No 258/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 
1997 concerning novel foods and novel food ingredients (OJ L 43, 14.2.1997, p. 16) 
http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:1997:043:0001:0006:EN:PDF    G/TBT/N/EU/186 
 
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  9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    To be determined 20 days from publicat ion in the Official 
Journal of the EU (The provisions shall apply 
from 2 years after date of adoption). 
10. Final date for comments:  90 days from notification 
11. Text available from:  National enquiry point [  ], or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresse s, if available of the other body:    
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  + (32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
 
The text is available on the EU-TBT Website :  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/    
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2013:0894:FIN:EN:PDF  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2013:0894:FIN:FR:PDF  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2013:0894:FIN:ES:PDF  
 
http://members.wto.org/crnattach ments/2014/tbt/EEC/14_0925_00_e.pdf