New Chair and Vice-Chairs to focus on strengthening participation in Codex

Rome

Tuesday 29th August 2017

In a letter to all member countries sent via the six Regional Coordinators, the Chair and Vice Chairs of the Codex Alimentarius Commission have outlined their goals and aspirations as officers of the Commission.

Below is the complete text of the letter.

A NOTE FROM CODEX CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIRS

It is an honour to have been elected to be at your disposal as Codex Alimentarius Chair and Vice-Chairs.  Let us take this moment to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation for this opportunity.  We are seized by the tremendous responsibility and trust you have placed in us.  We see ourselves as a resource to serve the needs and interest of the Codex family.

Our focus will be on strengthening participation in Codex and consensus-building, and advocating externally for Codex.  In serving you as Chair and Vice-Chairs we will be transparent and impartial, and the four of us will work together closely, collaboratively and collegiately. 

Most importantly, we want to ensure that as Codex Chair and Vice-Chairs we are close to you as Codex Member Countries, to the secretariat, to our parent organisations and to the Chairs of all subsidiary bodies as they are key to the advancement of standards.  One of the most visible signs of this commitment will be that at least one of us will aim to attend each meeting of the Codex committees and task forces, to provide this support to Chairs and Members, to put ourselves at your disposal to help facilitate progress in committee sessions and to agree on our goals together. 

We want to achieve impactful results for Codex and for safer food and we are sure that together we have the power to do so.  To help us achieve this, we will need to set out our priorities and together build a smart, practical and relevant Strategic Plan for 2020 to 2025.

Guilherme da Costa – Chair

Mariam Eid, Purwiyatno Hariyadi, Steve Wearne – Vice-Chairs

Other language versions

This letter is also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish,