PRESS RELEASE
from CORPORATE EUROPE OBSERVATORY
MASSIVE TRANSPARENCY WIN AS MEPS PASS EU GENERAL FOOD LAW REFORM
IN THE FINAL PLENARY SESSION OF THIS LEGISLATURE, MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT TODAY PASSED THE EU’S GENERAL FOOD LAW REFORM [1]. MAKING THE
PUBLICATION OF TOXICITY DATA MANDATORY, THE APPROVED REFORM IS A MASSIVE
TRANSPARENCY WIN THAT WILL ENABLE MUCH GREATER SCRUTINY OF THE EUROPEAN
UNION’S FOOD SAFETY DECISIONS.
MARTIN PIGEON, CORPORATE EUROPE OBSERVATORY’S AGRIBUSINESS RESEARCHER
SAID:
"A decade of efforts and an exceptional citizens' mobilisation around the
glyphosate scandal have finally led the EU to patch one of the most glaring
flaws in its food safety system. For the first time, the toxicity data from
studies provided by food companies and used in the EU risk assessment and
market authorisation process is going to be made public. A register of all
industry-commissioned regulatory studies will also be created, and could
become an effective tool against corporations cherry-picking studies that
favour a product's market approval.
"How much this new system will improve meaningful scientific scrutiny of EU
food safety decisions hinges on whether independent scientists will be able
to re-use data for academic publications free of industry permissions or
fees, whether companies will declare all regulatory studies they
commission, and the degree to which they may prevent data publication by
claiming"commercial confidentiality.
"This reform does remedy secrecy at the European Food Safety Authority and
provides a much-needed budget increase for the agency - but will it improve
the quality of EFSA's risk assessments? The overhauled law still doesn't
address the fact that companies control the production of regulatory data,
spend large sums on lobbying regulatory bodies to have them use
experimental protocols that deliver results favouring market authorisation
of their products, and ignores that many experts with corporate financial
links continue to be involved in EFSA's authorisation processes.
"Plus, the most crucial part of the whole process around market
authorisation remains a complete blindspot: positions and votes of member
states on whether or not to approve regulated products for the EU market
remain completely opaque, allowing EU governments to blame "the EU" when,
in fact, they have the final say - as was the case with glyphosate."
CONTACT:
Martin Pigeon, mar...@corporateeurope.org, +32 (0) 2893 0930
NOTES TO EDITORS:
*
CORPORATE EUROPE OBSERVATORY’S FULL ANALYSIS OF THE GENERAL FOOD LAW
REFORM [1], THE EVENTS THAT LED TO IT, THE DEFEAT OF AGRIBUSINESS LOBBYISTS
IN THE PROCESS, AND WHAT IMPROVEMENTS ARE STILL NEEDED.
*
Another important vote, if a disappointing one, in today's final plenary
session was that on the Horizon Europe legislation: As part of the EU's new
research funding law (2021-2027), Members of the EU Parliament also passed
a chemical industry lobby tool, the so-called "Innovation Principle", which
aims to introduce another layer of particularly business-friendly impact
assessment whenever a "new or revision of existing EU legislation is
proposed". See Corporate Euopre Observatory's briefing here [2].
NINA HOLLAND, RESEARCHER AND CAMPAIGNER FOR CORPORATE EUROPE OBSERVATORY,
COMMENTED: "It is extremely disappointing that MEPs have failed to stop
this prime example of corporate capture of EU policy-making. The fact that
it is now mentioned in the text of an EU law, as a recital, provides more
legitimacy for what is effectively a lobby tool to undermine EU
environmental and health protection rules."
Links:
------
[1]
http://media.corporateeurope.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1710&qid=205634
[2]
http://media.corporateeurope.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1712&qid=205634
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