Friday, March 29, 2024

Improvements sought for EU agchem approvals

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Government ministers will seek improvements in the European agchem approvals system as part of the United Kingdom’s European Union renegotiation. The pledge came as Syngenta’s chief operating officer, Jon Parr, said the EU’s pesticide regulatory system was “coming close to crisis”.
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George Freeman, Minister for Life Sciences, said the EU regulatory system had become “hostile” and he was leading a reform package on approval systems for agchems and other biosciences.

Speaking at a Syngenta research and development showcase at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in London this week, Parr said the crisis came from the EU moving from a risk-based approach to a hazard-based one, which happened about seven years ago.

He said the EU system was now under-resourced for its complexity, which requires new products to undergo three layers of approval and older products to be reassessed every five to seven years.

“It has become difficult for us to predict outcomes and it [the system] has become detached from agchem performance in the field,” Parr said.

“There is meant to be a commitment the process will take 24 months from start to finish – some are now taking 30 months and more. There is no recourse and patent life is ticking [during the process].”

He added it cost £200 million to bring a product to market, but the system was quicker and more predictable in other countries, which meant EU farmers’ competitors also got access to new products more quickly.

Freeman said he had received backing from other EU countries for the proposed reforms and, coupled with the current EU Dutch presidency, he was optimistic there would be change.

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