The work of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on the protection of bees against the risks of pesticides is continuing, leading this year to two new scientific reports, the EFSA confirmed on Tuesday 5 January.
The first concerns the revision of its 2013 guidance document, currently underway under a mandate from the European Commission following the refusal of Member States to fully implement it. The envisaged options, which reduce the level of protection, have been criticised by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12572/14).
The EFSA states that experts are examining the relevance of different sources of exposure, the model for estimating the oral exposure of bees and its parameters, the attractiveness of crops for bees due to pollen and nectar production, the inter-species sensitivity to pesticides, and the requirements for field studies.
The second report - a scientific opinion on the development of an integrated and holistic approach to the environmental risk assessment of multiple stressors to honey bees - will respond to a request from the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment. It will guide the longer-term future of environmental risk assessment.
The EU Bee Partnership is expected to launch its prototype data platform in early 2021, based on the ‘IoBee, the Internet of Bees’ project and the ‘bee hub’ concept funded by Horizon 2020. See the EFSA’s announcement: https://bit.ly/3pVkKJw (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)