WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/839 
8 April 2008 
 (08-1579) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
 
EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE  
IN THE SPS SECTOR 
 
Communication by the European Communities
 
 
 
 The following communication, received on 3 April 2008, is being circulated at the request of 
the Delegation of the European Communities.  
 
_______________ 
 
 1. The European Commission wishes to announ ce its intention to run SPS workshops and 
seminars during the course of 2008, as follows: 
I. ORGANIZED BY DG TRADE 
2. DG TRADE wishes to inform the SPS Committee of the following training courses and 
seminars planned in 2008.  The Commission wishes to stress the need to select the appropriate 
candidates for each course.  The seminars are aimed at decision makers which are actively involved in 
setting up national programmes, in order to have  a better understanding of the EC system.  The 
trainings related to laboratories are very practical in  nature and aimed at labor atory staff (rather than 
administrators) who carry out testing of foods tuffs and other materials for the presence of 
contaminants or microbiological agents. 
3. Please note that the WTO Members to be inv ited have been already pre-selected by the 
European Communities and official invitations will be sent to the respective competent authorities via 
the EC Delegation located in the capital cities. 
4. Due to the tight time schedule for some of these seminars, the European Communities would 
like to bring to the attention of pre-selected countri es that an official confir mation of their attendance 
should be forwarded as soon as possible to the EC De legation in its respective capital, in order to 
trigger the appropriate financial and administrative procedures. 
5. Further details can be obtained with hans.joostens@ec.europa.eu
. G/SPS/GEN/839 
Page 2  
 
  SUBJECT VENUE DATES 
(provisional) TARGET AUDIENCE 
Seminar on SPS issues  Brussels 2-4 June Administrators from 
India 
Training on residues and contaminants analysis Laberca, Nantes, 
France 2-13 June  Laboratory technicians  
actively engaged in testing of residues in food materials 
Training on microbiology analysis Campden and 
Chorley Wood Food 
Research Association 
(CCFRA), Gloucestershire, United Kingdom 11-22 August Laboratory technicians  
actively engaged in 
testing of 
microbiological agents in food materials 
Training on aflatoxin analysis Technical University  
Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany 1-12 September Laboratory technicians  
actively engaged in testing of 
aflatoxins/ochratoxin A 
in food materials 
Seminar on EC legislation in the SPS sector – Sanitary issues (fisheries) Brussels 6-10 October SPS administrators and 
decision makers  
Seminar on EC legislation in the SPS sector – Phytosanitary 
issues Brussels 20-24 October SPS administrators and 
decision makers  
Seminar on meat 
traceability Brussels 17-21 November Administrators and 
decision makers  
Seminar on SPS issues  Brussels 26-28 November Administrators from 
ASEAN countries 
 
 
II. ORGANIZED BY DG HEALTH AND CONSUMERS (DG SANCO) 
6. Under its "Better Training for Safer Food" initiative, DG SANCO wishes to inform the SPS 
Committee of the following training courses in dur ing 2008 to 2009 for mainly non-EC countries. 
SUBJECT CONTENT DATES  
(§provisional) INVITED 
COUNTRIES 
Highly pathogenic avian influenza Workshop to identify 
HPAI training needs 2 April 2008 All EC member States 
and beneficiary countries, international 
organizations 
 Sustained field 
training in close coordination with international organizations April 2008- mid 2009 Lao PDR, Myanmar, 
Cambodia, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco and possibly some EC member States (TBC) 
 Laboratory training in 
diagnostic methods for HPAI, Italy  2 sessions idem  G/SPS/GEN/839 
 Page 3 
 
 
  SUBJECT CONTENT DATES  
(§provisional) INVITED 
COUNTRIES 
Food testing in six ASEAN reference laboratories Training of laboratory 
staff in state-of-the-art analytical methods Autumn 2008 ASEAN countries 
Rapid alert  system 
for feed and food Presentation of the EC 
system on RASFF - 1-3 April 2008 
- 3-5 June 2008 - 28-30 October 2008 - Morocco  
- Indonesia - Turkey 
Ttraces system Presentation of the EC 
system for traceability 
(TRACES)  - 25-29 February 2008 
- 10-14 March 2008 
- 7-9 April 2008  - Thailand 
- Morocco 
- Singapore 
EC food standards on fishery products EC legislation and 
hands-on workshop two 3-day workshops 
- 22-24 April 2008  
- 10-12 June 2008  
- Philippines 
- Jamaica 
EC food standards on fruits and vegetables EC legislation and 
hands-on workshop - 27-29 May 2008 
- 1-3 July 2008 - Tunisia 
- India  
Food labelling and traceability EC requirements on 
food labelling and traceability 11-13 March 2008 Thailand 
Conference on food 
labelling EC requirements on 
food labelling and 
traceability 14-17 March 2008 Macao, China 
BSE Bovine Spongiform 
Encephalopathy 21-23 October 2008 South Africa 
Plant protection 
products EC requirements as 
regards plant 
protection products, and new developments11-13 November 2008 Ethiopia 
Residue monitoring 
planning Residue monitoring 
planning - 9-11 December 2008 
- 7-9 April 2009 - Brazil 
- Singapore 
Food safety Hygiene control of the 
food chain 10-12 February 2009 Argentina 
 
 7. Further details on these workshops can be obtained at the following link:  
http://ec.europa.eu/food/training/index_en.htm
, or with Isabelle.Rollier@ec.europa.eu  and Sanco-
trainingforsaferfood@ec.europa.eu , including any requests for future training. 
 
 
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