European food safety body battles for its senior scientists

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has admitted it is having trouble recruiting senior scientific staff because of a battle over staff budgets with the European Parliament (EP).

Restrictions imposed by the EP on EFSA have limited recruitment to junior scientists who are cheaper but lack the eight to 12 years' experience which it says it needs to cope with the workload.

Parma in Italy, where EFSA has just formally opened its new headquarters, had also been widely seen as an inconvenient and expensive location which was unattractive to potential staff.

However, the authority's executive director Geoffrey Podger was confident that EFSA would be able to attract sufficient employees to meet its planned increase from 150 workers to 198 by the end of the year.

"Our staffing levels are expected to double over the next two years, reaching 300 by the end of 2006," said Podger. "The authority's establishment in Parma will provide us with a solid base from which to pursue the expansion of our organisation and activities."

EFSA is also negotiating to improve aviation links to Parma.

EFSA was created in 2002 after a series of food scares that caused public concern across Europe. Its core business is risk assessment and risk communication. It is already associated with Commissioner Markos Kyprianou's Platform for Diet, Physical Activity and Health and recently created a Stakeholder Consultative Platform to help it communicate with consumers and the food chain.

The opening was attended by Italy's prime minister Silvio Berlus- coni and European Commission president José Manuel Barroso.