Foodlaw-Reading
Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
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Council Minutes, 16 April 2018
The following is an extract from the minutes of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting held on the 16 April 2018.
The Commission informed the Council on its proposal for a regulation on the transparency and sustainability of the EU risk assessment in the food chain.
The proposal is intended to react to the results of the 2014 fitness check on regulation 178/2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law and setting up the European Safety Authority (EFSA). The 2014 fitness check identified among others, shortcomings regarding risk assessment in the context of authorisation dossiers and risk communication. The proposal is also intended to react to the European citizens' initiative on glyphosate, which showed citizens' concerns about the transparency of the risk assessment process in the agri-food chain.
The proposal aims at ensuring that scientists and citizens have access to key safety related information being assessed by the EFSA at an early stage of the risk assessment. The proposal also provides for a series of measures to ensure that EFSA has access to the broadest relevant scientific evidence possible related to a request for authorisation. Other measures aim to increase the reliability, objectivity and independence of the studies used by EFSA in its risk assessments.
Ministers generally welcomed the proposal and the Commission invited the Council to make progress in order to have a timely adoption of the proposal.
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