The European Parliament’s ENVI Committee held an exchange of views with EFSA’s acting Executive Director, Dr. Bernhard Url, on 8 April.
Dr. Url kicked off the exchange of views by presenting an overview of EFSA’s accomplishments over the last 10 years, alongside challenges faced by EFSA.
Among EFSA’s successes, Dr. Url noted the delivery of more than 5000 high-quality scientific opinions, the Transparency Regulation which drives EFSA to proactively publish its opinions, and a marked increase in stakeholder engagement throughout the risk assessment process, particularly in the areas of animal welfare, bee health, and environmental risk assessment.
Among the political challenges faced by EFSA is the agency’s increasingly complex workload which must be undertaken by the same number of staff. Calls for embracing innovation and competitiveness have increased but so has the demand on EFSA to provide more safety assessments. The constant tension between protecting health and the environment on one hand and the quest for competitiveness and innovation on the other hand necessitates a political solution to balance the appetite for risk and the drive for innovation and competitiveness. Noting EFSA’s track record of transparency, Dr. Url called upon policymakers to allow the organisation to interact with applicants earlier in the application stage, particularly SMEs.
This was followed by a discussion between MEPs and Dr. Url on a range of topics including harmonised nutritional labelling systems, microplastics, and new genomic techniques.
