ECPA, EFSA Press EU For Funding

By Scott C. Lucas|26 February 2006

If the freezing of Heading 3B (under which EFSA is funded) went through as earlier discussed, ECPA predicted "severe consequences," and has sent a letter to Parliament President Borrell Fontelles warning him that budet restrictions would result in delays in the evaluation of crop protection products and would cripple EFSA’s attempt to assess maximum pesticide residue (MRL) levels in food and food products.

Both efforts are part of EU Directive 91/414/EEC, which was given strict timelines. ECPA advised that "the budget restrictions resulting from the freezing of Heading 3 will result in delays in the evaluation process – and a failure to meet the Parliament’s strict deadline." ECPA added, "In addition, EFSA’s workload on pesticide residues largely stems from the adoption of the Council and Parliament Regulation 396/2005, and EFSA will require additional resources to carry out this work in the coming years."

Dr. Friedhelm Schmider, Director General of ECPA, reinforced that message: "The crop protection industry has supported the setting up of EFSA to carry out important work in the area of food safety, including the assessment of plant protection active substances. EFSA is the keystone of EU risk assessment regarding food and feed safety, but only with the financial support of the European Parliament will EFSA be able to complete all activities for which it has been given responsibility."

He continued, "Given the enormous workload placed on EFSA by the Parliament and Council, we urge the Parliament to ensure that the necessary resources are provided to carry out all the work to meet the strict deadlines in place."