Today the European Parliament voted for a stricter and impartial
European system to exclude any dangerous substance from the food
chain. Socialists and Democrats have been at the forefront in the
fight against harmful pesticides, such as those containing
glyphosate.
The S&D Group insisted that the new system should 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.
The S&D spokesperson on this file, Pavel Poc MEP,
said:
“There has been a shade of mistrust on how EFSA approves its
reports. We must reinstall trust in the European food chain and
make our institutions resistant to any external pressure.
People’s health should come first, not a company’s profit.
“Copyright and patents must be protected, but not at the cost of
reduced safety. The early disclosure of information in the risk
assessment process is the only way to provide risk assessors with
the best available scientific knowledge and to ensure high level
of protection for the environment, public and animal health.”
S&D spokesperson on environment and health, Miriam Dalli,
said:
“We take citizens’ concerns on harmful substances very seriously.
Today’s vote culminates a long effort that started with the
Citizens’ Initiative on Glyphosate, with the creation of a
special committee on pesticides in the European Parliament, and
the introduction of a system to evaluate pesticides according to
the findings of the special committee.
"The risk assessment process will be more transparent, and we
also demand additional guarantees of reliability, objectivity and
independence of the studies used by EFSA.”
