Brussels, 27/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - Are the new European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) rules on conflicts of interest mere window dressing? NGOs fear as much. In the view of Corporate Europe Observatory, Earth Open Source and Pesticide Action Network, the composition of EFSA's new expert panels, made public on Monday 25 June, raises questions about the effectiveness of the said rules.
According to the NGOs, analysis of the declarations of interest (DOIs) by four of the eight new expert panels reveals that: - some experts previously criticised for having conflicts of interest with industry are still members of an EFSA panel or of the scientific committee; - some experts who have previously been actively involved in ILSI (the industry-funded group, the International Life Sciences Institute) activities, and who remain on EFSA panels, have given up their involvement with ILSI, but not all and some have still have not declared ILSI activities in their DOIs; - many panel members receive research funding from the agri-food, biotechnological or chemical industry while being on an EFSA panel (the new rules permit up to 25% of scientists' research budgets to be thus funded, but this still poses a clear conflict of interests, the NGOs claim); - various panel members still do consultancy work for companies in the food industry, but how much they are paid is not disclosed; - some panel members have failed to declare their interests correctly and completely. “The NGOs' revelations are disturbing. I trust that EFSA will provide us with detailed responses to the cases raised. It's one thing to adopt new rules, but putting them into practice and creating a culture for dealing with conflicts of interest is quite another!” immediately commented MEP Corinne Lepage (ALDE, France), rapporteur on the draft legislation on allowing member states to decide whether to authorise GM crops. The EFSA experts are due to take up their positions on 1 July. Their appointments are for three years. (AN/transl.rt)