"Harmonisation“ is one of the buzz words of our time - but what exactly does it mean? Our experts shed light on the general meaning of the term and MoniQA harmonisation activities on a strategic, technical and socio-economic level.
Generally, harmonisation can be defined as “actions or processes that through matching and blending bring about agreement, reconciliation or standardisation”. Harmonisation implies a high level of mutuality among the involved parties, regardless of different affiliations and viewpoints. In the natural sciences, harmonisation is a prerequisite for achieving consistent methods and standards. In education harmonised curricula will enable global access to high quality education and training.
Harmonisation in the context of MoniQA brings together approaches, views, knowledge and experiences with analytical methods for monitoring quality and safety in the food supply chain. In other words, harmonisation within MoniQA can be achieved by establishing agreement regarding the mechanisms and practices of food chain control and ways to ensure food safety. The impact on regulatory authorities, the food industry and those involved with the catering business as well as students and consumers needs to be taken into account in this assessment. But, the scope is much wider than simply harmonisation of any specific analytical or detection method. With partners from across the food chain, MoniQA seeks to obtain agreement concerning common strategic approaches to development, validation and communication of improved methods for food analysis and control. So called “smart harmonisation” within MoniQA will focus on issues such as sensitivity, reproducibility, reliability, ease of use, accuracy, and comparability of results.
In international law and in political science, the term harmonisation is used to refer to the process whereby the laws, regulatory frameworks or standards of states are brought in line with each other. Within the EU, and in the context of Europeanization, the term describes the process of approximation of regulatory frameworks in different sectors, also as a prerequisite for the free movement of capital, goods, people and services. The process of European integration has witnessed the extension of the scope of harmonisation. Initially, this process applied to the removal of barriers to competition. This, however, did not suffice. In order to avoid distortions in competition, it is equally important to seek and bring about harmonisation with regard to standards.
From this perspective, perhaps the relevance of ‘harmonisation’ for MONIQA can be re-phrased as: what are the implications of regulatory harmonisation in the food sector on analytical methods for monitoring food quality and safety? Clearly, if food standards are harmonized across the EU or even internationally, there is a need for reliable analytical methods that can ensure standards are adhered to in all contexts. This, in turn, implies strict validation procedures at the scientific level, but also the gradual convergence of institutional practices related to monitoring.
Working together with partners from 33 countries MoniQA will contribute substantially to all these levels of harmonisation.
Contributing authors: Siân Astley from IFR, Bert Pöpping and Sandra Kerbach from Eurofins, Wolfgang Kneifel from BOKU, Hans van Egmond from RIVM, Martin Rose from Fera, André Pirlet from the MoniQA Advisory Panel, Liana Giorgi from ICCR. Editing by Daniel Spichtinger and Siân Astley.
A general look at harmonisation
Generally, harmonisation can be defined as “actions or processes that through matching and blending bring about agreement, reconciliation or standardisation”. Harmonisation implies a high level of mutuality among the involved parties, regardless of different affiliations and viewpoints. In the natural sciences, harmonisation is a prerequisite for achieving consistent methods and standards. In education harmonised curricula will enable global access to high quality education and training.
Harmonisation in the context of MoniQA
Harmonisation in the context of MoniQA brings together approaches, views, knowledge and experiences with analytical methods for monitoring quality and safety in the food supply chain. In other words, harmonisation within MoniQA can be achieved by establishing agreement regarding the mechanisms and practices of food chain control and ways to ensure food safety. The impact on regulatory authorities, the food industry and those involved with the catering business as well as students and consumers needs to be taken into account in this assessment. But, the scope is much wider than simply harmonisation of any specific analytical or detection method. With partners from across the food chain, MoniQA seeks to obtain agreement concerning common strategic approaches to development, validation and communication of improved methods for food analysis and control. So called “smart harmonisation” within MoniQA will focus on issues such as sensitivity, reproducibility, reliability, ease of use, accuracy, and comparability of results.
The socio-economic view and the EU level
In international law and in political science, the term harmonisation is used to refer to the process whereby the laws, regulatory frameworks or standards of states are brought in line with each other. Within the EU, and in the context of Europeanization, the term describes the process of approximation of regulatory frameworks in different sectors, also as a prerequisite for the free movement of capital, goods, people and services. The process of European integration has witnessed the extension of the scope of harmonisation. Initially, this process applied to the removal of barriers to competition. This, however, did not suffice. In order to avoid distortions in competition, it is equally important to seek and bring about harmonisation with regard to standards.
From this perspective, perhaps the relevance of ‘harmonisation’ for MONIQA can be re-phrased as: what are the implications of regulatory harmonisation in the food sector on analytical methods for monitoring food quality and safety? Clearly, if food standards are harmonized across the EU or even internationally, there is a need for reliable analytical methods that can ensure standards are adhered to in all contexts. This, in turn, implies strict validation procedures at the scientific level, but also the gradual convergence of institutional practices related to monitoring.
Working together with partners from 33 countries MoniQA will contribute substantially to all these levels of harmonisation.
Contributing authors: Siân Astley from IFR, Bert Pöpping and Sandra Kerbach from Eurofins, Wolfgang Kneifel from BOKU, Hans van Egmond from RIVM, Martin Rose from Fera, André Pirlet from the MoniQA Advisory Panel, Liana Giorgi from ICCR. Editing by Daniel Spichtinger and Siân Astley.
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