Status of DPA re-registration in the EU

Following the non-inclusion of DPA in Annex I, the DPA Task Force has notified a new dossier to the European Commission under the accelerated procedure set forth in Regulation (EC) n. 33/2008. Within this context, in November 2010 the DPA Task Forcehas generated and submitted a fair amount of new data to the Rapporteur Member State (RMS), Ireland, in order to address the issues raised during the first evaluation. These data were evaluated by the RMS who recommended the inclusion of DPA in Annex I. Thatrecommendation is currently being reviewed by EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) and the European Commission. Upon the evaluation of these new data, EFSA and the Commission have identified new data gaps and requested new studies from the DPA Task Force. In order to address these requests, the DPA Task Force commissioned further new data and submitted them to the RMS for evaluation and comments. The RMS has evaluated these data, and on 13 April 2012 submitted a “Position Paper” to EuropeanCommission, EFSA and the other Member States, recommending, once again, the inclusion of DPA in Annex I.The submission of these new data and related Position Paper marks the end of the technical evaluation of DPA under the resubmission process, leading up to the RMS proposal for the inclusion of DPA in the Annex I. The DPA Task Force is confident that, with the support of the RMS and other Member States, it will achieve the inclusion of DPA in Annex I.In the meantime, the DPA Task Force has initiated two further initiatives to defend DPA in the EU. First, it has lodged an appeal against the EU General Court's judgment concerning the Commission's original decision not to include DPA in Annex I. In this appeal, the DPA Task Force argues that its rights of defence have been breached by the Commission and that DPA should have been included in Annex I since all evidence on record show that theuse of DPA in post-harvest treatment does not entail the formation of nitrosamines.Second, the DPA Task Force is supporting requests from various EU growers associations to obtain so-called 'Emergency Use' derogations in key pome producing EU Member States (Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland, UK and Italy) for the 2012 season. As these EU countries had granted such derogation for the 2011 season, it is expected that they will adopt a similar decision also for the 2012 season. That decision would be justified by the need for DPA and the lack of suitable alternatives in such countries. Notwithstanding, during the month of May/June 2012 the European Commission will issue a proposal concerning the inclusion or non inclusion of DPA in Annex I. Such proposal is currently being discussed internally between the Commission services, taking into account all comments received from the DPA Task Force, the RMS, the other Member States and EFSA. In the case that no qualified majority is reached among the EU Member States, theCommission will have to submit its proposal to the 'appeal committee' for a second vote. In any event, by the end of July 2012 the final decision should be made available.After that final decision, the EU Residues Working Group will reassess the maximum residue limits (MRL) for DPA, as needed, and on that basis, an import tolerante application will be submitted by the RMS to EFSA for evaluation.We trust the above reflects the current status of DPA in the EU. Any further questions should be addressed to the DPA Task Force.DPA Task Force 2 May 2012