An on-line public consultation on the transparency and independence of scientific risk assessments by the EU was launched by the European Commission on Tuesday 23 January and will remain open until 20 March.
All interested parties – NGOs, food chain actors, public authorities both in the EU and outside the EU – are invited to take part in the exercise to give their points of view on the European procedure of risk assessment. That procedure was strongly criticised during the five-year renewal of the licence for glyphosate, precisely because of the fact that it lacked transparency and independence with regards the food industry.
Contributions will be used by the Commission for preparing the legislative proposal on the transparency of scientific assessments. The Commission has announced the proposal for the spring in response to the citizens’ “Stop Glyphosate” initiative (see EUROPE 11924).
The proposal will “address this issue, as well as reinforce the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) governance model”, said European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, cited in a press release.
The EFSA is the pivotal body for food safety in the EU. It was established by European regulation of 2002 (178/2002) setting out the general principles and general prescriptions of food legislation and fixing procedures relating to the safety of foodstuffs.
The public consultation questionnaire is available on-line at: http://bit.ly/2G90oX9 . (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)