Friday, June 17, 2011

A more sophisticated crisis response

Alberto Alemanno has a thought provoking article regarding the response to the recent E. coli outbreak. Would it have been better if the European Commission had taken on more powers?

The Commission and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) could supervise the risk assessments conducted across Europe and coordinate the task of communicating the outcome of those assessments. A central organization could have more sophisticated ability to collate, assess, and distribute information than individual national authorities.

Read more here.

Alberto Alemanno is a guest instructor at the Institute for Food Laws and Regulations at Michigan State University. He is associate professor of law at École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC), Paris, adjunct professor of global risk regulation at Georgetown University Law Centre, and editor of the European Journal of Risk Regulation.