2023 Crisis Preparedness Training: Annual Report

In 2023, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) organised two crisis preparedness sessions; one external crisis exercise to emphasise cooperation and collaboration between various EU agencies, and one internal crisis workshop to assess the implication of article 20 of Regulation (EU 2022/2371) on EFSA's procedures of urgent response . The one‐and‐a‐half‐day external crisis exercise was hosted at the offices of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU‐OSHA and involved members of the European Union Agencies Network on Scientific Advice (EU‐ANSA); the focus was on resource and expertise pooling in response to crises that involve food safety or cross‐border threats to health. The training aimed to, and achieved several objectives, including enhancing the preparedness and collaboration of EU‐ANSA Agencies in supporting evidence‐based policymaking during crises, fostering mutual understanding of the different roles and mandates of the Agencies, setting the scene for future sharing of crisis‐related knowledge and information, testing the EU‐ANSA concept through the draft Framework for Interagency Coordination & Scientific Cooperation In Times Of Crisis, and exploring flexible and proactive approaches to interagency collaboration during crisis response. The internal crisis preparedness session was a workshop focused on identifying how the EFSA procedures for responding to urgent advice needs should be updated for working with other EU agencies on a serious cross‐border threat to health, as required by Regulation (EU) 2022/2371. The workshop was attended by 25 participants from EFSA, as well as 6 representatives from the European Commission (EC), European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and European Environment Agency (EEA). The workshop was mainly discussion‐based, with a series of exercises focusing on identifying areas for improvement, with two presentations setting the scene. The objectives of both events were achieved, based on recorded outcomes and feedback provided by participants in an evaluation survey. This Annual Report summarises the external training and provides a detailed overview of the development, content, conclusions and ideas generated by the internal event, as well as the participants’ evaluation.