Recently, the European Commission proposed France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden as assessment countries to carry out re-assessment of glyphosate. Currently, the competent authorities of the four member states have agreed to participate in the reassessment assessment of glyphosate as a member of the Glyphosate Assessment Working Group on Glyphosate (AGG).
 
Glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world, has been in the European Union for decades. The most recent approval decision was issued in December 2017 and the approval is valid until December 15, 2022. According to the EU Re-assessment Regulations, applicants planning to support glyphosate re-assessment should submit a written application by December 2019 and submit an application dossier in June 2020. The Rapporteur Member State and the Co-Rapporteur Member State are designated by the European Commission. Generally, one active substance has one primary assessment country and one supplementary assessment country.
 
Why is there a group of assessment countries for this review of glyphosate?
 
Considering that the re-assessment of glyphosate is complicated, the amount of data is large, and the review burden is relatively heavy. There is no single member country willing to take the initiative to assume the role of the main assessment or auxiliary assessment country. The European Commission proposes to establish a glyphosate assessment working group. The role of the main assessment country by several member states is jointly carried out to carry out the assessment.
 
The proposal will be held at the regular meeting of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SCoPAFF) from March 21st to 22nd to complete the appointment of the assessment country. . At the same time, considering that this move is different from the current re-evaluation regulations Regulation (EU) No 844/2012, the revised draft regulations for active substance re-assessment will also be discussed at the meeting.
 
It is expected that the glyphosate assessment working group will be formally established at the meeting, and France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden will conduct joint assessments and expect to submit the draft assessment report to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2021.