The aim of the evaluation is to facilitate the full EU harmonisation of national maximum residue levels (MRLs) for pesticides in the Member States.

The food safety authority performed an initial risk assessment screening of the proposed temporary Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) based on available data provided by the European Commission.

EFSA undertook model calculations aimed to estimate the exposure of European consumers. According to the risk assessment, 92 of the 236 active substances evaluated by EFSA were unlikely to present a risk to consumers.

For the remaining 144 substances, the first screening could not exclude a potential consumer risk. More work will now be carried out on these substances by the Member States and the European Commission with a view to establishing temporary MRLs.

This is one of the first steps in the full EU harmonisation of national maximum residue levels (MRLs) for pesticides in the Member States. EU wide Maximum Residue Levels are already set for about 250 active substances (ingredient compounds used in pesticides).

MRLs that are considered safe for the population in one Member State may not necessarily be safe for the population in other countries due to different food consumption habits across Europe.

An EU risk assessment of national MRLs is therefore necessary before they can be included in EU legislation in order to ensure that they do not pose unacceptable risks to consumers across Europe.

Until now each Member State has set its residue levels based on national diets and its own risk assessments. In order to ensure better protection for consumers in the EU internal market, the European Commission will now set EU-wide MRLs.

The establishment of harmonised Maximum Residue levels for the active substances considered by EFSA is a precondition to make the Regulation (EC)

396/2005 on Maximum Residue Levels of pesticides fully operational.

EFSA said that the risk assessment methodology developed for this specific risk assessment task is based on internationally recognised methodologies. Owing to the high number of temporary MRLs that had to be evaluated and the limited availability of data, additional conservative elements were introduced in the calculations to overcome the data gaps and to have an efficient tool to manage the high number of calculations necessary.

Therefore, the results of the calculations have to be considered as a first screening in order to identify those proposed temporary MRLs that are not

likely to pose risk to consumers.

EFSA has finalised its evaluation within the 6-month timeframe agreed with the Commission and will now forward it to the European Commission, Member States and the European Parliament.