An unusual public row over replacing outgoing European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) executive director Geoffrey Podger is embittering relations between Brussels bureaucrats ahead of Podger’s planned November departure to Britain’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

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The Commission wants a new EFSA executive director to be appointed after being assessed and nominated by its officials. This has angered EFSA’s top brass.


Writing to Commission secretary general David O’Sullivan, EFSA board chairman Dr Stuart Slorach said this would “in effect transfer to reappoint an executive director from the (EFSA) management board to the Commission”, compromising its authority and maybe “undermining confidence in EFSA as an independent body within the EU”.

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