Public consultation on draft guidance on “Default assumptions used by the EFSA Scientific Panels and Committee, and EFSA Units in the absence of actual measured data"

EFSA’s Scientific Committee has launched a public consultation on a draft guidance on default assumptions used by the EFSA Scientific Panels and Committee, and EFSA Units in the absence of actual measured data. 

In line with EFSA’s policy on openness and transparency and in order for EFSA to receive comments from the scientific community and stakeholders, EFSA has launched a public consultation on the draft opinion developed by the Scientific Committee.
The Scientific Committee reviewed the various default values used within EFSA and, after reassessing the extent to which these default values were science-based, identified a number of areas where harmonised default values could be proposed. The purpose of this guidance document is the harmonisation of default values used by EFSA’s Scientific Panels, Committee and Units, and not standardisation: it is therefore always possible to deviate from the proposed default values, provided that the rationale for such deviation is described.

Interested parties are invited to submit written comments by 15 September 2011.

Please use exclusively the electronic template provided with the documents to submit comments and refer to the line and page numbers. Please note that comments submitted by e-mail or by post cannot be taken into account and that a submission will not be considered if it is:

• submitted after the deadline set out in the call
• presented in any form other than what is provided for in the instructions and template
• not related to the contents of the document
• contains complaints against institutions, personal accusations, irrelevant or offensive statements or material
• is related to policy or risk management aspects, which is out of the scope of EFSA's activity.

EFSA will assess all comments from interested parties which are submitted in line with the criteria above. EFSA will publish on its website a summary report of the comments received, which the Scientific Committee will take into consideration in finalising its opinion.