SAFE team at Vegan Working Group meeting in LuxembourgSAFE was launched in January 2015. It was an encouraging year and we are proud to look back on our achievements which would not have been possible without the determination and passion of our secretariat and our cooperative members.

2015 saw SAFE’s close monitoring of EU legislation developments on high profile food safety issues such as Cloning, Genetically Modified Organisms, pesticides’ carcinogenicity risks or the impact of the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership on agriculture and food, to name a few. SAFE relentlessly lobbied EU institutions to promote the adoption of policies safeguarding consumers’ rights and access to safe and healthy food. This was notably done by attending EU parliamentary committees such as ENVI and AGRI as well as partaking in working groups like the European Commission (DG SANTÉ)’s Advisory Group for the Food Chain and Animal and Plant Health. In addition, SAFE regularly engaged with EU officials and stakeholders at workshops, conferences and other events in the field of food to put forward consumers’ interests. Attending these working groups and events illustrated how underrepresented consumers remain in the debate on EU food legislation. Considering the predominance of agro business representatives in Brussels there is a critical need for an independent body such as SAFE specifically lobbying on EU food law in the interests of consumers. With the support of our members we hope to continue growing in size and scope in 2016 to achieve our vision and goals on consumer protection and food in the European Union.

[ezcol_1third]Membership development[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]Since the creation of SAFE we’ve gained 12 members from 8 European countries.[/ezcol_2third_end]
[ezcol_1third]SAFE Flashs & Monthly SAFE Newsletters[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]

SAFE produces these SAFE Newsletter First Pagepublications to keep members up-to-date with our lobbying activities, the latest news on EU food legislation developments, upcoming events as well as EU Funding Programs that SAFE and our members could apply for in support of projects that promote food safety, environmental protection and sustainable initiatives. From February 2015 onwards, 10 SAFE Flashs and 10 SAFE Newsletters were sent out to our members (excluding the holiday period of August).[+][/ezcol_2third_end]

[ezcol_1third]Working Groups[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]

The Vegan & Vegetarian Working group met several times in Brussels and Luxembourg. Other Working Groups are forming.[/ezcol_2third_end]

[ezcol_1third]Meeting MEPs & EU officials[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]

For our advocacy work we met Members of the European Parliament and EU officials from the European Commission, European Council and Permanent Representations. Our list of contacts grew substantially, and we’ll keep on enlarging our audience group in 2016.[/ezcol_2third_end]

[ezcol_1third]Position Papers[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]