Bilateral and multilateral cooperation

Today more than ever, foodstuffs, animal feed and consumer products travel thousands of kilometres from producers to processing facilities and from there on to consumers. Global production and goods streams also involve risks, for instance where different legal or hygienic conditions apply. Close collaboration between all of the relevant public authorities responsible is therefore an important prerequisite for safe food.
The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) is part of an international network and also works with public authorities from countries outside the European Union (EU) with a similar range of responsibilities (known as “counterpart authorities”). The focus here is on the mutual exchange of information through visits by expert delegations, targeted learning opportunities and professional exchange between experts.

As part of its international activities, the BVL organises, manages and supports projects and initiatives to promote collaboration with public authorities. These projects pursue various different approaches and objectives.

For example, BVL engages in administrative cooperation with counterpart authorities in neighbouring EU countries, as well as with European development cooperation countries since 2021: The BVL sends experts to counterpart authorities outside the EU as part of EU ‘twinning projects’ or TAIEX measures. In addition to the EU there are other institutions that promote international cooperation between public authorities such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which finances study visits beyond national borders, particularly in the laboratory sector.

In Tunisia, throughout the period 2021-2025 BVL is collaborating with the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) on a project sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to strengthen food safety and consumer protection.

Development cooperation projects:

BVL undertakes development cooperation projects.

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„Twinning partnerships“:

EU programme for the development of modern, efficient administrative structures in countries outside the EU and the establishment of long-term administrative partnerships between these countries and countries within the EU.

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Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Instrument (TAIEX):

EU-programme for short-term, intermittent measures to support and strengthen the administration of countries outside the EU: (potential) accession candidates, countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy).

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Technical Cooperation Fund (TCF):

IAEO programme for international cooperation in all areas that can be impacted by the peaceful use of nuclear energy. This also includes agriculture and food and therefore food safety.

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The BVL also maintains close bilateral cooperation with its counterpart authorities. In addition to EU member states, the BVL’s international commitment is currently primarily directed towards Asia (China, India) and North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia). A risk management authority (Office National de Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits Alimentaires, ONSSA) was established in Morocco in 2010, with which the BVL maintains a close cooperative partnership.  

Foreground: In October 2015 former BVL President Dr. Helmut Tschiersky and Chairperson of the FSSAI, Ashish Bahuguna (left), signed a declaration of intent for the close cooperation between the two authorities. Source: German Embassy of New Delhi

International collaboration offers the opportunity to familiarise oneself with one’s counterpart’s official structures and procedures and promotes mutual understanding. Best practice models are developed and tested together, for example. By developing a mutual understanding of how different food safety institutions are organised, all players are in a better position to respond in a crisis. By harmonising the quality of food controls and communicating and exchanging knowledge about standards, barriers to trade for German and European companies are also broken down and non-EU countries are given smoother access to the European market. This increases the supply of safe products and leads to greater prosperity in the exporting countries. Consistently strict international controls on foods and consumer products assist the work of supervisory authorities within the EU.

In this way, the BVL contributes to the safety of globally traded foods and to the dismantling of barriers to trade, as well as improving the supply for consumers.

In addition to project-related cooperation, as a member of around 150 of the committees and boards of international organisations as well as in the EU, the BVL actively participates in the exchange of knowledge and experience.

From a professional perspective, the BVL’s activities with third countries are directed at:

• the development and expansion of official controls in third countries that import foods into the EU. Appropriate controls in the country of origin reduce rejection rates during import controls. This allows the authorities to concentrate their efforts elsewhere, for instance on measures to combat food fraud. The BVL sounds out interested partner authorities in advance that can also act as multipliers in their region wherever possible. In addition to professional exchange, there are also exchanges of personnel (e.g., work shadowing in BVL laboratories).

• communicating the European and German legal framework as well as the official structures within the scope of the BVL. The more countries approach this understanding, the easier it becomes to deal with each other during a crisis, for example, or if trade problems arise.

• the development and harmonisation of measurement techniques for food as well as other trade standards: exports are also facilitated for the German food industry by making it easier to compare measurement results and by aligning standards. By disseminating German and European methods and standards such as the Codex Alimentarius or “Food Code”, Germany has also safeguarded its international position in the drafting of generally recognised norms.

• the technical preparation of well-informed agreements on the dismantling of barriers to trade with non-EU countries, such as technical preparations for negotiations on trade agreements in the veterinary sector.

• the availability and quality of veterinary drug substances and the combatting of antibiotic resistance – here, the BVL promotes the collaboration of human and veterinary medicine with environmental experts (One Health approach) as well as the goals announced by the German federal government in the context of the G20 (external link). This is the only way to collectively tackle transnational problems such as antibiotic resistance or previously unknown pathogens.

• the exchange for the approval and application of pesticides and for combatting the use of prohibited pesticides. Countries and regions that supply food to the EU should be enabled to reach scientifically sound approval decisions for their market. For example, the establishment of approval processes for pesticides modelled on the European example was the focus of a successful twinning project with Morocco completed in 2019.

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