Additional advice on the renewal of the authorisation for import, food and feed of genetically modified maize MON89034 in view of EFSA opinions

In February 2019, COGEM advised on the application for renewal of the authorisation for import and processing of genetically modified maize MON89034. This event is resistant to certain lepidopteran insects.

In her previous advice, COGEM noted that no new sequence information was provided by the applicant and that a monitoring report was missing in the application. Provided that the sequence of MON89034 at time of renewal was identical to the original event sequence, and the missing monitoring report did not contain reports of adverse effects or incidents, COGEM concluded that import and processing of MON89034 poses a negligible risk to the environment in the Netherlands.

EFSA has stated that it has taken notice of the comments made by COGEM regarding the missing monitoring report and the lack of new sequence information, but did not specifically address these comments. After scrutinising the adopted dossier, it became clear that EFSA later received the missing monitoring report. EFSA did not address the question regarding the sequence similarity. The assumption of sequence similarity therefore still requires verification.