Detailed rules for implementing Article 32 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 were set out by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1981/20062, as amended by Implementing Regulation (EU) No 503/20133. It is necessary to update those rules, in particular regarding the financial contributions of applicants, in order to take into account changes in the costs incurred when testing and validating methods for detection, and changes in the allocation of tasks in the Member States.

The Regulation should also take into account the growing number of GMOs containing stacked transformation events with an increasing combination of single transformation events.

It is necessary to update the list of designated national reference laboratories to assist the Community Reference Laboratory referred to in in the first paragraph of Article 32 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 (CRL) for testing and validation of detection methods in order to take account of changes of designation of national reference laboratories by Member States and to include those in the Member States which recently joined the Union.

Transitional measures should be laid down to allow applicants who have received the acknowledgement of the application for an authorisation by the national competent authority according to Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 before the entry into force of this Regulation to pay the financial contributions according to Regulation (EC) No 1981/2006.

Due consideration should be given to public research institutions established in the EU applying for GMO authorisations related to projects mainly financed by the public sector, and a reduction of the amount of the financial contribution should therefore be foreseen in such cases.

Regulation (EC) No 1981/2006 should therefore be amended accordingly.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on the Food chain and Animal Health,