S&Ds back enhanced EU risk assessment to avoid harmful pesticides in the food chain
Date
27 Nov 2018
Sections
Climate & Environment
Socialists and Democrats have been at the forefront in the fight against harmful pesticides, such as those containing glyphosate, and have pushed for a strict and independent European system to exclude any dangerous substance from the food chain.
That is why today the S&Ds in the environment and health committee backed a report which aims to cover the whole agri-food chain, to ensure the independence of the authorisation process as well as public availability of studies submitted by the industry and used by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) in the risk assessment.
S&D spokesperson on environment and health, Miriam Dalli, said:
“Our group took very seriously citizens’ concerns on harmful substances. We supported the Citizens’ Initiative on Glyphosate and we want to have a better system to evaluate pesticides than the one in place now. "The risk assessment process must be more transparent, and we demand additional guarantees of reliability, objectivity and independence of the studies used by EFSA. “All studies and supporting information submitted to EFSA for risk assessments should be made public and easily accessible to the public on the EFSA website."
The S&D spokesperson on this file, Pavel Poc MEP, said:
"We also want more engagement of stakeholders, who not only should have access to the information but also be consulted. We have to allow independent scientists to scrutinise data submitted by the industry and to stop fraudulent practices such as concealing of unfavourable studies.
“Today’s result is the move towards greater food safety and hence better protection of European citizens.”