Three years ago Marie-Paule Benassi, the first counselor of food safety, health and consumers of the EU Delegation to China in Beijing received a baptism by milk when she took her post three days after the melamine crisis hit China. Since then, she has undertaken the daunting task of building bridges of understanding between Chinese authorities, and helping them to develop better food safety practices. Agenda caught up with Benassi at a recent Viva Beijing event, where she talked about the state and future of China’s food safety.
What is the EU delegation to China? It’s the embassy of the European Union. Because the EU is not a country, we don’t call it an embassy, but it’s not an international organization either. In the EU, all 27 member countries have EU level laws that are above national laws, so the EU is functioning like a federation of states for certain aspects, and the Chinese government considers us an embassy. We don’t have to take care of consular affairs and we concentrate mostly on economic and trade policies.
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