Outcome of a public consultation on the draft scientific opinion of the EFSA Scientific Committee on coverage of endangered species in environmental risk assessments at EFSA

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) carried out a public consultation to receive input from the scientific community and all interested parties on the draft scientific opinion on coverage of endangered species in environmental risk assessments (ERA) at EFSA. This draft opinion explored (1) the relevant ecological and biological characteristics that determine vulnerability of endangered species; (2) the extent to which endangered species are covered in current EFSA ERA schemes for plant protection products, genetically modified organisms, invasive alien species and feed additives; and (3) the possibilities for extending current ERA schemes, for monitoring and for mitigation to achieve required levels of protection for endangered species in an agricultural context. This draft opinion was prepared by a dedicated working group of the EFSA Scientific Committee and endorsed by the Scientific Committee for public consultation at its plenary meeting of 9 June 2015. The consultation was carried out via the web from 22 June 2015 and the draft opinion was published online with an invitation for submission of written comments by 10 September 2015. EFSA received 147 comments from 13 interested parties. The current report presents statistics on the comments received and lists all comments together with detailed answers to them. The submitted comments were considered valuable and were taken into account by the working group when updating the draft scientific opinion on coverage of endangered species in environmental risk assessments at EFSA. EFSA and its Scientific Committee wish to thank all stakeholders for their contributions. The finalised scientific opinion was discussed and adopted at the Scientific Committee plenary meeting of 11 November 2015, and is published in the EFSA Journal.