Brussels, 11/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - Syngenta and Bayer get it in the neck in a caustic report published on Thursday 11 April by the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO). The report reveals the lobbying war declared by the above two biotechnological giants in an attempt to prevent the EU from imposing a two-year temporary ban on the use of three bee-killer neonicotinoid pesticides, as proposed by the European Commission (see EUROPE 10823).
With just a few days to go before the member states vote on the proposal, put forward end April and early May in the appeals committee (see EUROPE 10823), the report entitled “Pesticides against Pollinators” reveals an offensive strategy that goes as far as attempting to have a press release from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) modified. After gaining access to the release before its publication, Syngenta sent an extremely aggressive letter demanding that the text be amended and threatening EFSA and its directorship with legal action. Evidence of this is given in the publication of their correspondence.
Martin Pigeon, who is a researcher at CEO, states that the fierceness of the tactics used against EFSA shows that the agency remains an essential element in the EU food safety system. While it has courageously stood up to pressure from industry on this highly representative issue, EFSA remains too weak and lacks resources to be able to maintain over the longer term this level of independence from industry. Pigeon went on to say how important it was for the European Parliament to help EFSA to capitalise on this important precedent when voting on budget discharge in next week's plenary.
Also revealed in Syngenta and Bayer's relentless lobbying strategy is: - the use of hired scientific services to defend the point of view of their businesses and instil doubt on scientific studies that provide proof of the pesticides' harmful effect on bees, further to which companies did not hesitate to carry out a re-assessment of the conclusions reached by the EFSA; - the alarming and unfounded allegations and disinformation at economic and scientific level; - and attempts at impressing the European Commission by claiming to have science on their side and relations with powerful figures such as Presidents Barack Obama and François Hollande.
It is on the basis of the scientific opinion published in January by the EFSA, regarding the fact that pesticides are responsible for the decline of bee populations, that the European Commission had submitted its proposal (see EUROPE 10813 and 10809).
The report is accessible at: http://corporateeurope.org/publications/pesticides-against-pollinators (AN/transl.jl)