A further step in the dialogue between the EU Agencies and Scientific Committees involved in Risk Assessment? The 4th Meeting of Chairs and Secretariats of Commission and Agency Scientific Committees and Panels will take place in Parma, 4-5 November 2008, hosted by the European Food Safety Authority. The meeting will be jointly chaired by EFSA’s Executive Director, Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, and the Director General of the European Commission’s DG Health and Consumers, Robert Madelin.

The aim of these annual meetings is to share experiences and best practices on risk assessment in order to improve its quality and communication and thereby improve support to risk managers’ decisions.

EFSA will hold discussions with representatives of other EU agencies and Commission Directorates-General active in closely related areas, including the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, European Environment Agency, European Chemicals Agency, European Medicines Agency, and Commission DG Health and Consumers. Participants will consider scientific issues of common interest related to risk assessment and identify areas and topics for further cooperation.

Items on the agenda include:

• Update on recent results in the field of nanotechnology risk assessment
• Transparency and terminology in risk assessment
• Risk-benefit assessment, data collection and emerging risks
• Developments in the Transatlantic and International Risk Assessment Dialogue, which aims at facilitating a global dialogue among risk assessment practioners in the EU and beyond
• Good Risk Assessment Practices
• Options for further cooperation in risk assessment

Draft agenda (0.1Mb)

Please also see the information on the EFSA website