Policy Making

Action Plan and General Mandates to EFSA

In March 2008, the Commission and EFSA agreed to update the guidelines for the environmental risk assessment by March 2010, with a formal interim report in March 2009. This work will be carried out in close co-operation with Member States' scientific experts. The mandate on these updated guidelines covers 4 areas: 

1. Environmental risk assessment of potential effects of GM plants on non-target organisms through:
1. Development of criteria for the selection of non-target organisms and representative species thereof, focusing on arthropods and other invertebrates, and also considering other relevant non-target organisms in different trophic levels;
2. Selection and recommendation of appropriate methods to study the potential effects of GM plants on these non-target organisms;
2. Development of criteria for field trials to assess the potential ecological effects of the GM plants in receiving environments (including experimental design and analysis to ensure sufficient statistical power);
3. Identification of EU geographic regions where the GM plants (combinations crop + trait) may be released and selection of representative receiving environment(s) which reflect the appropriate meteorological, ecological and agricultural conditions;
4. Selection of appropriate techniques to assess potential long-term effects of GM plants including experimental and theoretical methodologies, and recommendations for establishing relevant baseline information.

This update was foreseen in the Action Plan on GMOs prepared by the Commission following the College debate of April 2006. The aim of these measures is to improve the scientific consistency and transparency of decisions on GMOs.