Activity report 2020 (Executive summary) of the Directorate-general Quality and Safety

You will find below the activity report of the Directorate-General Quality and Safety for the year 2020.

The year 2020 was undoubtedly unusual. The outbreak of the coronavirus crisis has had a major impact on our operations. You will therefore notice many references to the coronavirus crisis in this document. 

At the start of the first “lockdown”, inspections were suspended in a number of sectors. At the same time, there was an enormous need for mouth mask controls and support for importers and buyers of these articles, 7 days a week from early in the morning until late at night.

Mandatory teleworking has made us discover that a large part of our work can also be done remotely. The far-reaching digitalisation of our operations ensured that our activities not only did not come to a standstill, but continued normally “as if nothing had happened”. Thus, our customers hardly noticed any impact on the quality of our services.

I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the commitment and solidarity shown by our employees. 

Those who were momentarily less busy have taken over tasks from others who were overworked. 

Employees who could not telework showed a sense of duty by coming to the office, even if it was not always easy.

It should also be noted that many worked more hours as they would do during the normal office hours. 

I am therefore very proud of what our employees achieved in the past year and would like to thank them for their efforts.