Glyphosate and access to studies – Referral to the Court of Justice of the European Union by 4 Greens-ALE

On Thursday June 1, 2017, the four MEPs Michèle Rivasi, Bart Staes, Heidi Hautala and Benedek Javór announced that they had referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) the question of the non-disclosure by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) of the studies on which it had been based. In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a body of the WHO, drew an opposite conclusion based on studies in the public domain. <

Reaction of Michèle RIVASI, member of the Health and Environment Commission:

More than a year ago, the conflicting conclusions of EFSA and IARC prompted us to look for reasons for their differences. We have asked EFSA for access to the studies it has used and which are kept secret because they are provided by the industries concerned. After a year of intensive negotiations, the European agency only provided us with partial access to these studies, omitting key information such as methodology or experimental conditions. Without this essential information, it is impossible for independent experts to verify the validity of the conclusions, as pointed out by toxicologist Christopher Portier in his letter to the President of the European Commission on Sunday May, 28.

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In consequence, we are suing EFSA for non-disclosure of the studies on which the agency based its opinion. We hope that this procedure will ultimately lead to emblematic case law which, in future, will encourage the European agencies to favour transparency over commercial secrecy when it comes to the scientific evaluation of substances that are potentially harmful to health and the environment.

However, the fight against glyphosate and for transparency must not stop at this trial, which will last several years. It is imperative to amend the internal rules of procedure of European agencies so that they only use studies in the public domain, as IARC does. While the Monsanto Papers scandal once again challenges us on the need to put a stop to the interference of agrochemical industries in public health policies, European citizens can act now by signing the European Citizens’ Initiative calling for a ban on glyphosate in Europe (2).

(1) Links: Filing a complaint with the European Court of Justice

French: http://extranet.greens-efa-service.eu/public/media/file/1/5199

English: http://extranet.greens-efa-service.eu/public/media/file/1/5197

(2) The European Citizens’ Initiative has already collected the necessary quotas in 7 European states and a total of more than 800,000 signatories out of the million required for the European Commission to take up the issue: https://stopglyphosate.org/fr/