The way forward in the EU for co-formulants in plant protection products
The way forward in the EU for co-formulants in plant protection products
At the Dublin Plant Protection Symposium in November 2023, Dr Maristella Rubbiani, Policy Officer at Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission, talked about the way forward in the EU for co-formulants in plant protection products.
Dr Maristella explained why the assessment of Plant Protection Products (PPPs) and co-formulants is under increased scrutiny, especially after NGOs raised criticism regarding the long-term effects of PPPs. The Petition Committee (EP) is looking at a petition submitted by an NGO requesting to access experimental studies on long-term toxicity of pesticides and suspending marketing approvals when insufficient toxicological data on co-formulants have been submitted.
Dr Maristella emphasised that the evaluation of the co-formulants is part of each product assessment, and applicants and Member States (MSs) are involved in the process. She summarised some of the recent developments regarding co-formulants in PPPs, such as Annex III of Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/383 that lists unacceptable co-formulants, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/574 for identification of other unacceptable co-formulants and the EFSA technical report on data collection on co-formulants. Dr Maristella outlined the recent progress of the European Commission which is described in more detail in the new website that has been launched, see The Assessment of Plant Protection Products (PPPs) (europa.eu).
Finally, Dr Maristella summarised the objectives of the European Commission which focus on developing a guidance for harmonising the assessment of PPPs, establishing an EU database on co-formulants that will be coordinated by EFSA and integrated into the EU data platform under the ‘One substance – one assessment’ initiative, and building clear communication on the legal framework.
If you missed the PPP Symposium, a copy of all the presentations is available on the publications section of the Kerona website at the link https://kerona.ie/product-category/publications/
Please contact the PPP regulatory consultants at Kerona info@kerona.ie if you need support with the registration of PPPs in the EU and the UK.