7th Meeting of the Panel on General Standards
Paris, 2007-03-01/02
The 7th meeting of the Panel on General Standards took place at the EPPO Headquarters, in Paris, on 2007-03-01/02. The Panel studied two general standards finalized during the joint meeting of the Panel on Efficacy Evaluation of Herbicides/PGRs and Fungicides/Insecticides: a new standard on the Effects of plant protection products on adjacent crops and the revised Standard PP 1/207 Effects on succeeding crops. Both documents were recommended to the Working Party on Plant Protection Products for approval.
The main goal of the meeting, which was to finalize a draft standard on 'Efficacy and crop safety extrapolations for minor uses' in order to send it to EPPO member countries for comment, was achieved. The EPPO draft standard is based on the document 'Proposals for Extending and Harmonizing Efficacy and Crop Safety Extrapolations to Reduce the Need for Efficacy Trials on Minor Crops' produced by the PSD (Pesticides Safety Directorate, York, GB) in 2005 under a European Commission (DG SANCO) contract. The draft standard clearly separates general principles for extrapolation regarding the efficacy and crop safety of plant protection products intended for minor uses and specific extrapolations (in the form of tables), which should form accompanying supplements to the document. The format of tables should enable specific extrapolations to be regularly and easily updated and maintained.
The possibilities of developing a guidance document on the subject of mutual recognition was explored. It will be discussed further at the next meeting.
The Panel also thought about the possible ways of addressing the following important topics: benefits of using plant protection products, loss of product diversity, lack of funds for research. The discussion will be reported to the Working Party.
The next meeting of the Panel on General Standards will take place in 2008-03-06/07, in Paris at the French Ministry of Agriculture, at the kind invitation of Mr Malet.