Commission Decision of 30 July 2010 establishing the High Level Forum for a Better Functioning Food Supply Chain

3.8.2010 EN Official Journal of the European Union C 210/4
COMMISSION DECISION
of 30 July 2010
establishing the High Level Forum for a Better Functioning Food Supply Chain
2010/C 210/03
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Whereas:
(1) Article 173(1) of the Treaty assigned the EU and the Member States the task of ensuring that the conditions necessary for the competitiveness of EU industry exist, in particular by encouraging an environment favourable to cooperation between undertakings. Article 173(2) in particular calls upon the Member States to consult each other in liaison with the Commission and, where necessary, to coordinate their actions. The Commission may take any useful initiative to promote such coordination.
(2) The High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry created by Commission Decision 2008/359/EC (1) of 28 April 2008 drafted a report containing 30 recommendations and a roadmap of key initiatives with the aim of promoting the competitiveness of the European food industry.
(3) In its Communication entitled ‘A better functioning food supply chain in Europe’ (2), the Commission presented ten policy initiatives aimed at correcting the problems identified during the single market review in the food sector and undertook to submit a report on their implementation, based on a discussion with stakeholders.
(4) It is now necessary to ensure follow-up to the recommendations of the High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry and to the Commission initiatives. A new expert group with extended competences must therefore be established in the form of a High Level Forum for a Better Functioning Food Supply Chain, which should be representative of all food chain operators. This Forum will make it possible to ensure consistency between the various Commission initiatives.
(5) The Forum must be composed of high-level personalities representing the Member States, the agricultural sector, the agro-food processing and food distribution industry, as well as non-governmental organisations with expertise in the food supply chain.
(6) Rules on disclosure of information by members of the Forum should be laid down, without prejudice to the Commission provisions on security as set out in the Annex to Commission Decision 2001/844/EC, ECSC, Euratom (3).
(7) Personal data relating to members of the Forum should be processed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data (4).
(8) Decision 2008/359/EC should be repealed.
(9) It is appropriate to fix a period for the application of this Decision,