Brussels, 21/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - According to a report published on 20 May by the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), the journalist, Stephan Horel, and information revealed that day by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN Europe), the industrial lobbies and even some European Commission services, especially the former Directorate General Health and Consumers (DG SANCO), are responsible for the delay the European Commission has taken to take action against endocrine disruptors, despite its legal obligations.
So far, the scientific criteria the Commission was obliged to publish in December 2013 to define these chemical substances of which even small doses can disrupt a healthy hormonal balance and create a greater risk of fatal and genital malformations, cancer and infertility, are still awaited, to the great disappointment of member states, the European Parliament, health and environmental NGOs. The European Commission was called on to introduce legislation to ban these substances but has postponed until 2017, any possibility of a new regulatory framework. On 1 June next, it will organise a conference to debate the criteria for identifying endocrine disruptors.
According to the CEO report, the lobby groups representing the chemicals industry, as well as pesticides and plastics producers and major chemical companies, blocked all attempts to introduce legislation to ban these toxic substances. DG Environment, however, was initially put in charge of this dossier but was sidelined by DG SANCO, DG Trade and DG Enterprise, which explains the decision taken in July 2013 by the Commission to proceed to an impact study, which suggests it responded to a request made by the chemicals industry.
PAN Europe accuses DG SANCO of having sacrificed health policy on the altar of petty power games in Brussels. To back up its claims, the NGO draws from 200 documents from different Commission services, which it obtained by exercising its right to access the documents in question.
PAN Europe's analysis of these documents reveals the following: in 2010, DG Environment was in charge of drawing up criteria that should have led to the definition of these endocrine disrupters. In 2012, however, what was at the time DG SANCO (now DG Health) worked with DG Enterprise “to undermine the work by DG Environment and mandate the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) to redo the work that had already been accomplished by DG Environment and the Joint Research Centre”. In 2013, DG SANCO, at the behest of unprecedented industrial lobbying, gained credibility among the Commission services that were strongly biased towards economic questions, such as DG Enterprise, DG Trade and the Secretary-General and which were inclined to believe in the “exaggerated complaints of the industry regarding the enormous loss of profits that the ban on the pesticides disrupting the hormonal system would cause”. These Directorates General were concerned about the potential negative repercussions of a strict European policy on endocrine disrupters and the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations.
On 20 May, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) pointed out that it was currently taking part in a variety of initiatives to extend scientific knowledge regarding the active substances disrupting the endocrine system and the non-monotonic dose response curve (cases where effects are observed when low or high doses are involved but not those for intermediate doses) in risk assessment, a project jointly carried out by French and Austrian agencies (ANSES and AGES) and which will be completed by the end of the year. It also announced that it would be taking part in a conference on 1 June organised by the Commission.
It should be pointed out that last February, the EU Council of Health decided to give its support to Sweden in a case it is pursuing against the Commission at the European Court of Justice due to the negligence it exercised in this dossier. (Aminata Niang)