Transparency In Risk Assessment Carried Out By Efsa: Guidance Document On Procedural Aspects

The Scientific Committee was asked by the European Food Safety Authority to provide guidance that would ensure transparency in the risk assessments carried out by EFSA's Scientific Committee and Panels. In discussing the terms of reference, two main categories of issue emerged - procedural and scientific. This Guidance Document addresses all the process-related issues. It was prepared by a working group made up of members of the Scientific Committee and of several EFSA departments including the Science, Legal, Institutional and International Relations and Communication Departments. The science-related issues will be covered in a separate guidance document.The Guidance Document highlights several procedural aspects related to risk assessment that can be considered beneficial for improved transparency, including: (i) selecting qualified scientists to participate in EFSA's activities and ensuring their independence; (ii) overall handling by EFSA of requests for scientific opinions; (iii) scientific opinions and other types of EFSA document; (iv) ensuring the availability of relevant data; (v) information exchange between the Scientific Committee, the Panels and the originator of the request; (vi) involvement of other stakeholders; (vii) dealing with diverging scientific opinions; (viii) adoption of scientific opinions; (ix) dissemination of documents and underlying data; (x) confidentiality aspects; and (xi) revising and updating scientific opinions. In doing so, this Guidance Document addresses the many important procedures already laid down - either in Regulation EC 178/2002 (EC, 2002a) known as The EFSA Founding Regulation - or in various internal EFSA documents, such as the Decision concerning the establishment and operations of the Scientific Committee and Panels.