Negotiators from the Parliament and the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, assisted by the European Commission, made progress at their second trilogue meeting on Thursday evening, 24 January, on the proposal for reform of the general European food law to improve transparency and accountability of risk assessments of certain substances (such as pesticides, food additives or GMOs) carried out by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA - see EUROPE 12172).
Ten policy issues identified were on the agenda, on which further work will be needed, such as risk communication and the EFSA Management Board, sanctions.
Technical work is still needed for this, before the next trilogue scheduled for 11 February in Strasbourg. The Romanian Presidency hopes that it can be concluded. The climate was constructive. All parties are working hard to reach a conclusion. “We are confident that this will be possible”, said a diplomatic source.
This proposal revising the 2002 European Regulation, which set out the general requirements for food and established EFSA, was presented by the European Commission last April as a response to the European Citizens' Initiative ‘Stop glyphosate', addressing concerns about the lack of independence and inaccessibility to the public of scientific studies used for pesticide evaluation (see EUROPE 11999). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)