More Transparency: EU Commission Seeks Support from Austria

"It would only be a targeted change in food law but it could revolutionise the European approval system in the food sector. For the benefit of farmers, consumers and the environment", commented the co-initiator of the European Citizens' Initiative "Stop Glyphosate" and GLOBAL 2000 chemist on the EU initiative for more transparent approval procedures in the food sector at a press conference with EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis in Vienna.

In mid-April, the EU Commission presented a legislative proposal that provides for the automatic publication of all studies in European approval procedures relating to food safety. "With this move for more transparency we are responding to the concerns of Europeans", says Health Commissioner Andriukaitis: "I hope that the law can be passed before the European elections in May 2019. This requires the support of the European Parliament and the Member States. Austria's EU Presidency can play a decisive role in this. The positive and encouraging signals from Minister Elisabeth Köstinger at the last Environment Council were therefore gratifying". GLOBAL 2000 also plead for an agreement before the European elections and commits to continue working with the European Parliament and Council to avoid the loopholes.

Criticism of the secrecy of studies had been voiced in the course of the controversy over glyphosate: While only IARC had classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic for humans" on the basis of published studies, both the EU food safety authority EFSA and ECHA declared the herbicide "unlikely to be carcinogenic". ‘’The lack of verifiability of some of these studies led to general criticism of the European approval procedure’’ said Helmut Burtscher-Schaden.

Andriukaitis explains: "With this legislative proposal, the EU Commission has responded to a number of demands of the European Citizens' Initiative "Stop Glyphosate", which was signed by more than one million Europeans. As far as transparency is concerned, we went one step further and applied the same rules to authorisation procedures for food additives, food contact materials, GMOs and other food related issues".

Commission proposals reply to the second part of the ECI and contain elements that go way beyond this. These elements, in which GLOBAL 2000 recognise enormous potential for improved health and environmental protection include:

To establish a register of commissioned studies with EFSA to ensure that applicants submit all studies they have conducted on a substance, regardless of the results.

EFSA's mandate, in exceptional cases, to commission verification studies to enable the Authority to be certain of conflicting results.

Strengthening EFSA's operational and human resources to increase its scientific independence.

The Commission's proposal foresees a significant increase in EFSA's budget of EUR 62.5 million per year for the operational and human resources needed.

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