Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Whereas:

Article 157(1) of the Treaty assigned the Community and the Member States the task of ensuring that the conditions necessary for the competitiveness of the Community’s industry exist. Article 157(2) in particular calls upon the Member States to consult each other in liaison with the Commission and, where necessary, to coordinate their actions. The Commission may take any useful initiative to promote such coordination.

In its Communication ‘Mid-term review of Industrial Policy A contribution to the EU’s Growth and Jobs Strategy’^f1, the Commission announced the intention to launch a food initiative concerned with the competitiveness of the Community agro-food industry.

It is therefore necessary to set up a High Level Group composed mainly of experts in the field of competitiveness of the Community agro-food industry, and related challenges such as food safety, health, environment and to define its tasks and structure.

The group should address issues that determine and will determine in the future the competitiveness of the Community agro-food industry. Based on the outcome of its discussions the group should formulate a set of sector-specific policy recommendations with a view of enhancing the competitiveness of the agro-food industry in accordance with the Community policies, in particular the objectives of food safety and health, agricultural policy and sustainable development.

The group should be composed of representatives of the Commission, the Member States and relevant stakeholders, in particular from the agro-food industry upstream producers and downstream users, consumers as well as civil society.

Rules on disclosure of information by members of the group should be provided for, without prejudice to the Commission’s rules on security as set out in the Annex to Commission Decision 2001/844/EC, ECSC, Euratom^f2.

Personal data relating to members of the group should be processed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data^f3,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: