According to EU Regulation on Pesticides (Reg. (EC) 1107/2009), pesticides placed on the EU market should have no harmful effects to human and animal health and no unacceptable effects to the environment (Art.1 & 4). This concerns pesticide products and all their ingredients including active substances, safeners, synergists and co-formulants.
Although Article 4 applies to safeners and synergists, an established work programme and data requirements for these substances used in EU pesticide products has been pending since December 2014. Therefore, their risk assessment is still performed at the national level, with unclear methodologies across Member States and level of protection.
In November 2023, after almost 10-years delay the European Commission finally published a draft Regulation to define data requirements & a work programme for the approval of safeners and synergists. It was open for feedback until December 20, 2023 and could be voted on by European Member States by the end of January in the upcoming meeting of the Standing Committee of Plants Animals Food and Feed (SCoPAFF).
Despite the immense delay, PAN Europe welcomes the proposal for a harmonised EU assessment of safeners and synergists, aligned with that of pesticide active substances. These biologically active substances are equally sprayed onto our food and in the environment, therefore it is important to set the same standard of risk assessment as for active substances in pesticide products.
However, the proposed draft Regulation has limitations that need to be addressed to ensure compliance with the safety provisions of the EU Regulation on Pesticides. These include an extensively lengthy 6.5 years period to review the safeners and synergies currently on the market, the lack of setting protective Maximum Residue Levels for residues of these substances in food or specific limits for groundwater. Above all, it is important to explicitly state that safeners and synergists should have no harmful effects on human and animal health, and/or the environment and that their regulation is underpinned by the precautionary principle.