Health commissioner David Byrne believes the move is a breakthrough. 'After 27 years of piecemeal legislation at the EU and national level, this regulation sets out a harmonised framework for maximum residue levels of pesticides,' he said. 'It will provide significant protection to consumers across Europe.' The regulation is still at the draft stage, but if it enters into force all MRLs for plant protection products will be harmonised after a transitional phase-in period to a set European level. This will remove existing inconsistencies whereby individual member states can set their own national MRLs.

As well as consolidating and simplifying existing legislation, the regulation will define the roles of those involved in setting MRLs. The European Food Safety Authority launched last year will assume responsibility for risk assessment and the Commission will provide risk management by setting MRLs taking into account EFSA's opinions. The Commission already has an annual residues monitoring programme which will be able to pass additional data to EFSA for risk assessment.

The draft regulation drawn up by the Commission now needs to pass to the European Parliament and Council. Then EU trade partners at the WTO and in the Cotonou agreement with African-Caribbean-Pacific countries will also have to be notified. A likely timetable for the regulation to come into force is January 2005.