Guidelines on EFSA Consultations

This document provides guidance on the strategy and methodologies followed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to consult on its scientific outputs with the objective of increasing transparency, visibility and openness of the scientific risk assessment. This initiative is framed within a larger activity devoted to the continuous improvement of the EFSA Quality Management System, a key component of the on-going consolidation of its excellence and independency.

The document illustrates all the relevant aspects to be taken into account when running a consultation: the motivation and scope of a consultation; the definition of the issues at stake in a given consultation; the identification of the relevant stakeholders to be involved in a given consultation; the selection of the most appropriate means of a consultation; and a description of how the comments received are addressed and followed up.

The concluding description of the different steps in EFSA's scientific assessment that may be open for consultation, provides interested stakeholders with an explanation on EFSA's procedure to ensure consistency and harmonisation of the consultation process.