Brussels, 03/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - Due to legal sleight of hand put to use by the member states of the EU in the European Commission (DG SANCO) in the total absence of transparency, the citizens of the EU and the environment are massively exposed to the risks of pesticide products tweaked and then resubmitted, even though all of the data required for their assessment are not available, says PAN- Europe (Pesticide Action Network Europe).
This accusation was made publicly by the network of NGOs on Tuesday3 April after a study of what it describes as a “major derogation system” to the requirements of EU legislation on pesticides (Directive 91/44/EEC for the authorisation, marketing, use and control within the EU of phyto-pharmaceutical products in their commercial form), in other words “resubmission”. This term, described by PAN-Europe as a “new invention developed behind the curtains” of the Standing Committee of the directive, which is made up of representatives of the 27 and the Commission, has since 2007 made it possible to give the pesticides industry a second chance when its chemicals are banned or withdrawn from the market. And the icing on the cake is that these products are given free access to the market during the assessment procedure, in exchange for the voluntary withdrawal of their products by these companies. By carrying out an examination of samples of chemical products, PAN-Europe discovered that for 100% of pesticides which were authorised after this second chance, the environmental risk assessment was not possible, due to a lack of data. In eight out of ten cases, the assessment of risks to consumers was not carried out, again due to a lack of data. And for the pesticide Bromuconazole, five information gaps were considered acceptable, even though this was required information.
“It is unacceptable member states and DG SANCO are wasting time on these pesticides only because of fears of being bullied by the industry. Regulators neglected their mission to protect people's health and the environment and gave priority to putting more pesticides on the market”, said Hans Muilerman of PAN-Europe, who is calling for “a reform of risk assessment and a return to a respect for the rules”. (AN/transl.fl)