EFSA Addresses Questions on Risk Assessment Transparency

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) conducted a conference on Transparency in Risk Assessment on 3 October 2013 in Parma, Italy. It was part of an initiative designed to facilitate public access to data used by the Authority in risk assessments and to enhance transparency in its scientific decision-making processes. It was attended by senior EFSA staff, scientists, industry representatives, non-governmental organizations, international lawyers, and other stakeholders who debated about various issues and questions such as: does openness mean publishing all data? How should uncertainty be reflected in EFSA's conclusions? And should more of EFSA's scientific meetings be open to observers?

Tim Radford, freelance journalist and former science editor of The Guardian summarized the key talking points in the conference. He quoted Alberto Alemanno, a professor of EU law at HEC Paris and at New York University who said, "Sunlight is the best disinfectant…How could anybody be against transparency?" The principle to openness, the right of access to documents, and its rationale had to be matched with EFSA's founding regulations, questions of commercial sensitivity, and with existing procedures. There were limitations to overcome but transparency and in particular public participation could also help EFSA solve allegations of conflict of interest; open up new avenues of accountability; contribute to open, efficient and independent public administration and turn EFSA (and other EU agencies) from mere providers of technical information into managers of information platforms.

Read the news release at http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/131003-transparency-ra/docs/131003report.pdf.