EFSA News Item, 30 March 2007
EFSA has just issued scientific advice related to EU rules on the placing of pesticides on the market. The work concerns the type of information pesticide manufacturers and marketing companies are required to submit in the context of EU approval procedures.
EFSA's advice is based on its expert knowledge of the latest scientific methodologies and approaches in pesticides risk assessment. This will assist the European Commission in revising requirements based on Directive 91/414/EEC on the placing of plant protection products on the market, the main pillar of EU pesticides legislation. The Commission requested EFSA's input to ensure the most up to date and comprehensive technical requirements are built into EU legislation, with a view to ensuring high standards of protection for consumers and operators.
EFSA's Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR Panel) has now adopted the last in a series of six opinions on Commission working documents dealing with six distinct fields of data requirements currently regulated by separate Directives. These cover information and studies on: physical and chemical properties; toxicology; ecotoxicology (i.e. toxic effects on ecosystems and their constituent parts); fate and behaviour (i.e. what happens to pesticides in the environment); pesticides residues; and the analytical methods used for generating the data on which evaluation, control and monitoring are based.
Tony Hardy, Chair of the PPR Panel, commented: “As the European reference body for risk assessment in food and feed safety, EFSA is uniquely placed to provide independent scientific advice on pesticides. EFSA already co-ordinates a major EU-wide undertaking in the form of the peer review of active substances used in plant protection products. This latest work on data requirements is an important support for EU decision makers in ensuring European legislation is grounded on the latest knowledge base and technical expertise in the field.”
The six PPR Opinions are published on the EFSA website, with titles referring to the revision of Annexes II and III to Council Directive 91/414/EC.