Technical Report 125

Protection goals and risk assessment / management

The EU has highly developed and complementary environmental regulations, which are applied to distinct ‘eco-regions’ (EC, 2000; Meissle et al, 2012; Maes et al, 2014) each typified by different ‘ecologically relevant’ species (Chapman, 2002; Meissle et al, 2012; Ibrahim et al, 2013). The benefits of adopting more ecologically holistic and spatially explicit approaches for chemical ERA has been recently articulated in the European Commission’s discussion paper Addressing the New Challenges for Risk Assessment (SCHER/SCENIHR/SCCS, 2012). In parallel with the drive to improve chemical ERA, the European Commission has developed a Biodiversity Strategy which recognises the need to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services (Section 1.2). However, there is still a basic lack of understanding of how protection goals within current EU environmental legislation will ensure that this need is met (EFSA, 2010; Hommen et al, 2010).