Press releases

Brussels, 2^nd of March 2016. Six environmental NGOs (Global 2000, PAN Europe, PAN UK, Generations Futures, Nature et Progrès Belgique and Wemove.EU) from five European countries are filing today a formal complaint against those responsible for the assessment of glyphosate in Europe, for denying the cancer causing effects of glyphosate and getting its European market license renewed.

The practice of EU Commission health service SANTE to approve pesticides while important safety data are missing, the so-called "confirmatory data procedure" (CDP), is a case of maladministration according to the EU Ombudsman in a decision published today (pnt 8 of the decision). Under the previous pesticide Directive (91/414) she considers use of these practices by DG SANTE as unlawful (pnt 27) and under the new Regulation (1107/2009) that allows use of CDP only in exceptional cases she concludes the use was not restricted as it should (pnt 11).

A large reservoir of pesticides with unacceptable health effects is present at EU Commission health service DG SANTE but Mr. Andriukatis' DG makes no move to ban them. Not one of the six most harmful pesticides (see Table below) is put on the agenda of today's meeting[1] of the Standing Committee. For the pesticide Amitrole, capable of causing malformations of the fetus, the dossiers and the EFSA peer-review are ready since July 1, 2014 and no decision is taken.

PETITION DELIVERY

16 Organisations deliver a message: 135,733 Europeans call to ban glyphosate

Wednesday 9 December, at 12:00 the call was delivered at DG SANTE’s premises located in Breydel Street, No 4, 1040 Brussel (Etterbeek), to Mr Flueh, Chair of the Standing Committee for Food Chain and Animal Health - Section: "Phytopharmaceuticals - Legislation, on behalf of Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis.

26 November 2015 – The European Commission has taken a full one year delay in submitting a report to the Parliament and the Council on increased use of alternatives for pest and disease control. Let us hope that this does not reflect an overall low ambition of Europe to reduce the risk to human health and the environment through implementation of sustainable use of pesticides.

As we learned today, on 9 October 2015, the European Commission and Member States have authorised Flupyradifurone, a new neonicotinoid insecticide. Again, this substance did not go under any proper evaluation for its chronic and sublethal toxicity on honey bees or wild bees. As it did in July on Sulfoxaflor, DG Sante disregarded the risk posed by this systemic and persistent insecticide on pollinators.

PAN Europe is extremely disappointed with today’s European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) opinion concluding that glyphosate is not classified as a human carcinogen. Instead of doing an independent assessment on the pesticide, EFSA’s work is a copy of the German Government agency BfR’s assessment and the pesticide industry dossier compiled by the Glyphosate Task Force, hiding and misinterpreting the tumour incidences from experimental studies.

In 2014, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a negative opinion on Dow agroscience’s new Sulfoxaflor insecticide. The pesticide was qualified as ‘highly toxic to bees’ by the Authority and it identified crucial toxicity data gaps, which makes a proper risk assessment for bees impossible. The chemical is similar to the "neonicotinoids", the pesticides upon which EU has put a "moratorium" due to their toxicity to bees. Despite these facts, DG Sante and the EU member states authorised Sulfoxaflor on 27 July 2015, completely bypassing the pesticide regulation. PAN Europe requests the European Court of Justice to cancel this unjustified approval.

Fifteen of the pesticides that the European Commission is currently evaluating for market approval are of “critical concern” regarding their endocrine disrupting properties - the European Food Safety Authority reported last Wednesday.

EFSA concluded in March 2015 that the pesticide Sulfoxaflor is highly toxic to bees and several required safety tests are missing (exposure of bees via nectar and pollen…). Despite this opinion, Sulfoxaflor was approved by the European Commission for use in agriculture and the approval was published on July 27.