Economic and legal / regulatory objectives

The Cartagena protocol signed by the EU, which came into force in September 2003, makes it mandatory to provide information to importing countries on the eventual presence of GMOs in imported food and feed. According to regulation 1946/03/EC the quality of food and feed products should be the same for both domestic and export markets.

There is a need for economy of scale and targets should address cost-effectiveness, both for niche markets and for the global trade of low cost commodities. Other requirements include compliance to mandatory general traceability and specific directives and regulations (1829/03/EC, 1830/03/EC for GMOs); global harmonization (with or without formalized standardization); and added value to European products for export to countries with labelling regulations.

Therefore the objectives of PETER within the economic and regulatory framework are to :

  1. Create a dynamic network platform between the existing projects in order to reduce the time and hence the cost spent on generating outputs
  2. Identify cost savings by listing the potential duplication of specific tasks within the existing projects
  3. Assist in the knowledge transfer of vital regulatory issues via a dissemination network platform